Ava–Hanthawaddy War (1401–1403)

The Ava–Hanthawaddy War (1401–1403) () was a military conflict between Ava and Hanthawaddy Pegu that lasted from 1401 to 1403. It was the second of the decades-long wars between the two kingdoms, both located in present-day Myanmar. The upstart regime of King Minkhaung I of Ava survived two dry season invasions by King Razadarit of Hanthawaddy.

The casus belli was Razadarit's decision to exploit Ava's prolonged succession crisis that began in 1400. When the new king Minkhaung struggled to consolidate power, Razadarit invaded with a large naval armada via the Irrawaddy River in 1401, aiming to achieve a quick submission by Minkhaung. Caught completely off guard, Ava defenses could only hunker down inside their forts along the river. The Hanthawaddy navy went on to dominate the entire river up to Tagaung but did not have enough manpower to take any of the forts. As Minkhaung refused to submit or counterattack, Razadarit roamed freely in the upcountry until he was persuaded to withdraw by a Buddhist monk mediator in early 1402. The Hanthawaddy king began a slow deliberate withdrawal, stopping by Pagan (Bagan) to build a monastery there. He fully withdrew only when he learned that Ava's southern forces had defeated the Hanthawaddy army outside Prome (Pyay), and captured his daughter, Princess Tala Mi Kyaw, in the process.

In response, Razadarit renewed the siege of Prome in September. It took Minkhaung three months to send down an army. Though Minkhaung's first army was thoroughly defeated, Minkhaung himself came down with a second, larger army, and defeated the Hanthawaddy garrison at Nawin on 26 December 1402, ending the siege. The initial peace negotiations began in January 1403. The two kings subsequently met at the Myathitin Pagoda in Prome to affirm the prewar border. After a second round of negotiations to ensure long-term peace, Minkhaung agreed to a marriage of state between Razadarit and his younger sister Thupaba Dewi; in return, Razadarit sanctioned Minkhaung's marriage to Tala Mi Kyaw, and agreed to grant Ava the annual revenues of the port of Bassein (Pathein).

Minkhaung emerged stronger after the war. He had finally won the support of his vassals, and began using his newfound power almost immediately. From 1404 onwards, he picked off his eastern and northern neighboring Shan states one by one each year, alarming both Ming China and Pegu. After Ava seized Arakan on the western littoral in 1406, Razadarit broke off relations, fearing Pegu would be next. In 1408, he decided to strike first, and sent an army to Arakan. The Ava–Hanthawaddy War (1408–1418) ensued.

Background This war had its origins in the First Ava–Hanthawaddy War (1385–1391) when King Swa Saw Ke of Ava unsuccessfully tried to replace King Razadarit of Hanthawaddy Pegu with his own nominee, Viceroy Laukpya of Myaungmya.Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 195–196 Although Swa and Razadarit signed a 1391 peace treaty that affirmed Pegu's independence, Razadarit vowed to avenge the invasions when the opportunity presented itself.

In the following decade, Mon-speaking Hanthawaddy Pegu under Razadarit's leadership emerged as a full-fledged regional power. By 1400, Pegu "had grown in economic and political power", and greatly benefited from the growth in chiefly maritime trade with South India, Ayutthaya, Malacca and maritime Southeast Asia, and Ming China. Its eastern neighbors, Chiang Mai (Lan Na) and Ayutthaya (Siam) now recognized Pegu on equal terms.

Ava's experience was different. Throughout the 1390s, the Burmese-speaking kingdom in the central dry zone was preoccupied with the Shan-speaking kingdom of Maw (Mong Mao) to its north. The two kingdoms had fought a war between 1387 and 1389/90,Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 199–200 and went to war again in 1392–1393. Ava even sought Chinese help in containing their common enemy Maw, but found no relief as the Ming government itself could not establish firm control of its Yunnan borderlands until 1398.

Prelude Ava's succession crisis

In April 1400, King Swa died, and Crown Prince Tarabya ascended the throne. Five months into his reign, Tarabya went insane, and was assassinated by Governor Thihapate of Tagaung in an attempt to seize power. The court executed Thihapate, and offered the throne to Tarabya's 27-year-old half-brother Prince Min Swe of Pyinzi.

However, the prince refused as he had no power base. Due to his acrimonious rivalry with his elder half-brother since childhood,Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 210 Swe was kept out of Tarabya's administration, and did not command a single regiment. He instructed the court to offer the throne to Governor Maha Pyauk of Yamethin, who commanded a sizeable force. Prince Theiddat implored his elder brother to reconsider. When Swe still refused, Theiddat assassinated Pyauk. It was only then that Swe ascended the throne, with the regnal title of Minkhaung, in November 1400.

His formal accession changed little. Unlike Tarabya who had been trained since his youth to succeed the kingship,Htin Aung 1967: 89 Minkhaung had little experience dealing with the powerful court, or the myriad vassal rulers of the kingdom. His first acts as king were to reappoint the existing rulers, and repay the leader of the court, Min Yaza of Wun Zin, for his support. In all, outside of appointing Prince Theiddat at Sagaing, the new king was able to install his loyalists only in a few small districts: Thihapate at Taungdwin, Thado at Myohla, Baya Gamani at Singu, and Yazathingyan at Siboktara.Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 212

View from Pegu According to the Razadarit Ayedawbon chronicle, Razadarit "raised his fist in jubilation" when he heard of King Swa's death in 1400. However, he began seriously contemplating an invasion of his northern neighbor only in 1401 after receiving a stream of reports that Minkhaung did not command the loyalty of his vassals, and that the vassals themselves were not united behind any one power. For Razadarit, it was "the opportunity [he] had been waiting for." Knowing that he needed to strike before Minkhaung could consolidate power, Razadarit ordered his court to prepare for a full scale dry season invasion.

First invasion (1401–1402)

Pegu battle plan

By the beginning of the dry season, Pegu had assembled a combined naval and land invasion force. The main force was a large naval armada, which according to the Razadarit Ayedawbon, consisted of 13 flotillas, some 4000 vessels of all types, carrying 5000 (or 7000) troops as well as horses and even elephants. A smaller army (3000 troops, 150 cavalry, 50 elephants) had also been raised. The main royal chronicles, which narrate primarily from the Ava side, provide two estimates of the armada: 500 war boats and 6000 troops (Yazawin Thit), and 300 war boats and 16,000 troops (Maha Yazawin and Hmannan Yazawin).

All sources indicate that the invasion forces were strong in terms of war boats but not in terms of troops. The Hanthawaddy navy's 300–500 war boats far exceeded the 120 and 80 war boats Ava used in the 1386–1387 and 1390–1391 campaigns, respectively. However, the combined (naval and land) troop strength of 8000–10,000 was only about a third to half the size of Ava's invasion forces of the 1386–1387 and 1390–1391 campaigns.

The plan thus relied on the armada delivering a speedy strike on the capital Ava (Inwa) via the Irrawaddy. Land battles would be reserved only for securing a few key port towns—Prome, in particular—along the river. The Pegu command expected "a pitched river battle" as their armada approached the Ava capital region. If more land battles were still necessary, they believed that Ava forces could be induced to fight outside the walls of Ava. Razadarit himself planned to lead the invasion, riding a large royal barge named Karaweik. His co-chief ministers and senior generals Byat Za and Dein Mani-Yut would accompany him. To defend his capital Pegu (Bago), the king assigned Zeik-Bye, another senior minister, to lead the Pegu defense corps.

Ava battle plan

The Ava command hastily drew up a plan only after the invasion had begun.Yazawin Thit Vol. 1 2012: 213 Because they had not mobilized anything, they quickly settled on leveraging Ava's existing network of walled cities–53 in total—which were all "strategically arranged throughout the kingdom so that each town was within one day's or two days' march of another." They ordered all the main fortified towns along the Irrawaddy to bring all their regional manpower, horses, elephants and supplies behind the walls. Ava defenses now fielded a total of 12 forts along the invasion route: Prome (Pyay), Myede, Sagu, Salin, Pakhan Nge, Pakhan, Sale (Salay), Pagan (Bagan), Talok, Sagaing and Singu.

Ava's first stand would start at Prome. The port city's defenses included thick brick walls surrounded by a deep and wide moat, and mounted jingal wall guns atop the ramparts. Prome's small flotilla, however, would not contest; its war boats had been moved to a lake inside the city. The city also took in the troops, horses and elephants that had retreated from Tharrawaddy and Gu-Htut. Prome's governor Letya Pyanchi, a son-in-law of Hanthawaddy Viceroy Laukpya of Myaungmya as well as an experienced commander, was to lead the defenses.

Opening campaign

The invasion began 15 November 1401. The invaders quickly overran Tharrawaddy and Gu-Htut, and raced towards Prome. At the outskirts of Prome, the naval and land troops joined up on land, and tried to take the city. But the attacks had to be called off when Hanthawaddy forces suffered heavy casualties from the city's mounted guns.

The Hanthawaddy command feared that a prolonged fight here could jeopardize their upriver campaign. Razadarit argued that the navy could still proceed with the invasion if the army could keep Prome neutralized. Dein strenuously cautioned against going deeper into enemy territory without having secured Prome. But the king chafed at his co-chief minister's caution, and rejected the advice. The high command now drew up a plan to maintain the siege, and set up an alternate supply station at Myede, 70 km north of Prome. They chose Khaunglaunggya, located north of Prome, as the siege army's headquarters, and the king appointed his son-in-law Saw Maha-Rit as the commander. Princess Tala Mi Kyaw, who had come along with the invasion force, decided to stay behind with her husband.

Advance to Ava

The new plan needed to be revised immediately. The armada discovered that Myede too was heavily fortified. Another son-in-law of Razadarit, Smin Upakaung the Elder, was killed while trying to charge the walls. The Hanthawaddy command now completely abandoned the idea of setting up supply stations. Their new plan called for the armada to sail directly towards Ava, and rely on their naval prowess to secure the riverine supply lines.

Though it may have been risky, the revised plan worked. It turned out that Ava's defenses were far less organized than the Hanthawaddy command had given credit for. The armada sailed up the river completely unopposed, burning down all the boats in their way. When they reached Pagan (Bagan), Razadarit was tempted to take the ancient capital for symbolic reasons but quickly decided against it after seeing the city's heavy fortifications. As they approached the Ava capital region—Ava and Sagaing on the opposite banks of the river—they still did not see the Ava navy. Puzzled, Razadarit dispatched his vanguard squadrons further up the river. The squadrons went up as far north as Tagaung (230 km from Ava) but found no traces of the enemy navy.

Stalemate