A high-priest who was greatly revered, was accused of incontinence. Phya Tak summoned him before his tribunal and condemned him to trial by fire. The soles of his feet were burned by the glowing charcoal, and that was sufficient proof of his guilt. He would have been sentenced to death had not powerful friends obtained his pardon on the grounds that his death would cause a scandal, and that if their servants were done away with the gods would lose their prestige.
Phya Tak raised all those who had been his partisans to the highest positions in the State.
A foe to the Burmese, he inflicted severe punishment on those who favoured them and who stirred up rebellions in the kingdom.
In 1769 he showed his generous spirit towards his countrymen. The drought had caused a great famine, one of the usual events a war brings in its train. Work was suspended and the farmers could do but little.
Destructive rodents had devoured the rice as soon as it had reached maturity, seeds had been destroyed in the earth. They were unable to procure the "ignam" a species of truffle or potatoe of such size that a single one is sufficient for one man. Swarms of insects, attracted by the corpses, darkened the air and waged a ceaseless war against the living.
Under these unhappy conditions Phya Tak showed his generous spirit. The needy were destitute no longer. The public treasury was opened for the relief. In return for cash, foreigners supplied them with the products that the soil of the country had refused. The Usurper justified his claims by his benevolence. Abuses were reformed, the safety of property and persons was restored, but the greatest severity was shown to malefactors. Legal enactments at which no one complained were substituted for the arbitrary power that sooner or later is the cause of rebellions. By the assurance of public peace he was able to consolidate his position and no one who shared in the general prosperity could lay claim to the throne.
At the end of 1768 a bastard Prince who had been exiled to Ceylon, reassembled his supporters and set up his authority in various parts of the country. Phya Tak led an expedition against him and gained a brilliant victory. The Prince fell into the hands of the conqueror who ordered his execution as, a punishment for having proved the weaker party.
In the same year he led an army against Porcelon and Ligor, two towns which had not fallen under the Burmese rule. The governors of these towns, taking advantage of the troubled state of the country, had set themselves up as independent rulers. Thus it was that the Empire, delivered from a foreign yoke was harassed by domestic tyrants who attempted to destroy all that the enemy had spared; in fact the whole kingdom was in a state of turmoil.
It is not known whether the expedition was successful. It was reported but not confirmed that the two towns were captured.
At the first news of the Siamese revolt the King of Burma sent orders to the governor of Tavoy to overrun the country again, and to press the inhabitants of the town into his army to effect the entire ruin of the country.