WI: Qing invasion of the Shan States succeeds?

The Qing Empire attempted to invade Burma through Yunnan in the 1760's, in a series of campaigns that aimed to consolidate control of the Shan states. The invasion looked easy due to the state of disarray Burma was in at the time, but king Alaungpaya managed to reunify the nation and fend off the numerically superior Qing forces, making this the only one of the Qianlong Emperor's major campaigns to end in disaster.

A successful invasion would also affect European and Thai ambitions in the region, and could potentially allow the Chinese to invade Assam; it would be easy to make the invasion succeed as the Qing armies had a large numerical advantage and were supported by the Shan princes who controlled the mountainous border regions.
 
the only one of the Qianlong Emperor's major campaigns to end in disaster.
Vietnam?

Anyways, the Qing simply cannot win this war. The Burmese have superior everything - superior weaponry, superior knowledge of the terrain, greater morale, and resistance to endemic diseases that decimated the Chinese troops. Not only that, Burma was not in a "state of disarray." Alaungpaya had already concluded the civil war a few years ago and Burma was in fact so powerful that they were devastating Thailand.
 
Top