Burmese armies within Siam, in a time where loyalties were to tied to monarchs rather than to ethnicities. The Burmese forces reached the outskirts of Ayutthaya on 20 January 1766. The Burmese then began what turned out to be a grueling 14-month siege. Burmese chronicles note that the inhabitants of Ayutthaya fought fiercely and bravely against the Burmese invaders. In January 1767, the city suffered a catastrophic fire, which burned 10,000 houses.In January 1767, the city suffered a catastrophic fire, which burned 10,000 houses. The Burmese armies finally breached the city's defenses on 7 April 1767, and subsequently sacked and burned the entire city. Gold, cannons, treatises on science and religion, people, royals, musicians, and artisans were all hauled back to Ava. Most of the Burmese armies marched back with its large war booty, with a small number of prize garrisons being left in a number of Siamese outposts and cities, including near the former Siamese capital. By late 1767, Hsinbyushin was forced to recall even more of his Siamese garrison units back to Ava to deal with the Chinese invasions. A long-term effect of the sacking of Ayutthaya in Burma was the creation of the Yodia people, or the descendants of forcibly relocated Ayutthaya inhabitants to Burma. Ayutthayan musicians and artisans would hold significant roles within the Ava court and would significantly influence Burmese arts and culture. Generations of successive Ayutthaya nobles intermarried with Konbaung rulers and princes. Chinese invasions (1765–1769) The conflict with the Chinese had its beginnings in the 1758–59 campaign by the Burmese to reassert Burmese authority in the Burmese-Chinese borderlands whose chiefs historically had paid tribute to both sides but had become solely Chinese tributaries since the mid-1730s. The Chinese at first decided to use local Tai-Shan militias to reassert their control but by 1765, the Qianlong Emperor decided to send in the regular Chinese troops. The Chinese began their invasion in December 1765, just as the Burmese armies were marching towards Ayutthaya. Hsinbyushin refused to recall the main Burmese armies in Siam. At first, the strategy seemed to work well. The remaining Burmese armies handily defeated the first two Chinese invasions at the border. But the Burmese were caught flat-footed in November 1767, when a 50,000-strong force led by the elite Manchu Bannermen invaded again. The main Chinese army defeated the main Burmese army in December 1767 at the Battle of Goteik Gorge, prompting