While Naungdawgyi was laying siege to the Toungoo, the vassal king loyal of Lan Na at Chiang Mai was overthrown. (Southern Lan Na had come back to the fold only in 1757. Prior, the Ping valley of southern Lan Na had been in revolt since 1725.) The leader of the rebellion, Chao Khihut, immediately began defensive preparations, as well as implementing a preemptive offensive strategy. Khihut allowed Talaban, the top Restored Hanthawaddy general who had been on the run, to use Chiang Mai as his base to raise an army to launch an attack. In late 1761, Talaban and his army entered Martaban (Mottama), and for a time, appeared to distract Naungdawgyi's army at Toungoo. But Talaban's army could not rally greater support among the Mon population in Lower Burma, and was driven back. Talaban fell back to the jungle between the Salween (Thanlwin) and Moei rivers (present-day Mon State and Kayin State), reduced to conducting guerrilla warfare.