Taksin, however, succeeded in driving back the small Burmese invasions and captured Lan Na in 1775, leading to the dying Hsinbyushin to send one last major military expedition to destroy Thonburi in 1775-76.

His father was a Teochew Chinese merchant and tax collector named Zheng Yong (鄭鏞)[5][6] who had earlier immigrated from Huafu (華富) village in Chenghai,[6][9] Guangdong Province to serve in Siam.

[citation needed] By January 1767, the situation of Ayutthaya defenders became dire as the food resources depleted and more people kept surrendering to the Burmese besiegers.

[21] After his victory over the Burmese at Prachinburi, Phraya Tak shifted his journey downstream the Bangpakong River towards the Gulf of Siam, reaching Bang Plasoi (Chonburi) on the eastern coast on January 19.

[21] Phraya Tak also decided to seek military assistance from Hà Tiên, which had been ruled by the Cantonese Mạc Thiên Tứ[25] who had been the most prominent Chinese leader in the area by that time, against the Burmese.

[27] The Burmese victors took about 30,000[28] inhabitants of Ayutthaya, including the former king Uthumphon, other members of royal family and the noble elite class, back to Burma.

In the evening of June 15, 1767, Phraya Tak ordered his forces to consume all the remaining food supplies and to destroy all of the cooking pots, pressing that the victory must be accomplished before the next meal.

De Fels proposed that Chiam was the same person as Chen Tai (陳太, called Trần Thái[25] in Vietnamese), the Teochew Chinese pirate who had earlier attacked Hà Tiên but was defeated by the forces of Mạc Thiên Tứ.

Phraya Tak then decided that Ayutthaya was too ruinous to be restored in a short period of time as he needed a defendable fortress against possible Burmese repercussions.

Realizing that Ayutthaya would be difficult to defend against the Burmese,[40] Phraya Tak made the Thonburi port-town near the mouth of Chaophraya his base and capital[4] with close proximity to the sea.

Maengki Manya led the forces of 2,000[21] Tavoyan men into Siam, marching through Kanchanaburi and reached Bang Kung (Thai: บางกุ้ง) on the Mae Klong River in Samut Songkhram, which had been a Chinese community town, to the west of Thonburi.

King Taksin assigned Phra Mahamontri Boonma[44] as his vanguard with himself leading the Siamese troops to repel the Burmese at Bang Kung, going by sea with twenty vessels.

The situation for the Chinese defenders of Bang Kung was critical but King Taksin managed to arrive on time and defeat the Burmese in the Battle of Bangkung in 1768.

Many noblemen of the former Ayutthayan elite class had fled to take refuge in regional centers including Phitsanulok, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phimai, which had become the seats of rival regimes.

In 1768, King Taksin marched his combined Chinese-Siamese armies north to attack Phitsanulok, reaching Koeichai in modern Nakhon Sawan province.

Chaophraya Phitsanulok also appointed Phra Aksorn Sunthon (Thai: พระอักษรสุนทรศาสตร์ personal name Thongdi, father of the future King Rama I) as his Samuha Nayok or Prime Minister.

[31] Prince Thepphiphit had been a major political figure as he, alone among the five regional contenders, laid claim to the fallen Ayutthayan dynasty and had attracted a large number of followers.

After the Fall of Ayutthaya, Phra Palat Nu the deputy governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor) who had been in charge of the city declared himself a ruler.

Taksin assigned Chaophraya Chakri Mud the Muslim Prime Minister to lead the Thonburi armies of 5,000 men[47] down south to conquer Southern Siam.

Taksin disembarked at Chaiya and commanded Phraya Phichairacha to join with Chaophraya Chakri Mud to take Nakhon Si Thammarat as vanguard.

Chaophraya Nakhon Nu the ruler of Ligor then hurriedly took his family, including his daughters and his son-in-law Prince Phat, to flee to Songkhla.

Sultan Muhammad of Pattani was in no position to protect the fugitives and decided to turn the governors of Ligor, Songkhla and Phatthalung over to the Siamese to avoid attack.

King Taksin generously distributed cash and food to the local population of Nakhon Si Thammarat and gave money, rice and robes to the Buddhist monks.

Phraya Phiphit the acting Phrakhlang, in the name of Thonburi court, had earlier requested the purchase of Western flintlock firearms from the Supreme Government of the Dutch East Indies at Batavia in January 1769.

The king marched through Nakhon Sawan and reached Pakphing, an important strategic position locating south of the Phitsanulok city, on August 18, outpacing his vanguard troops who had not yet arrived.

King Taksin sent his royal forces to quickly take Phitsanulok on August 8, 1770, defeating his former nemesis Luang Kosa Yang who fled and disappeared.

On August 30, Taksin marched eastward to the Nam Muet canal in efforts to pursue Chao Phra Fang but instead met with Northern Siamese people who had fled into the forests during the warfare.

King Taksin presided over a grand ceremony to purify the Northern Siamese Sangha,[23] in which sacrifices were made and white clothes were raised to form the holy compounds for the monks to perform their miraculous trials.

In October 1770, Taksin appointed his ablest and most trusted military commanders to be the governors of Northern Siamese cities; Chao Phra Fang was never found and simply disappeared from history.

[citation needed] Efforts by King Taksin to expel the Burmese, subjugate the rival regimes and to unify the kingdom made sure that Siam would remain cohesive as a political and cultural entity.