"To prepare for the southern expedition, the Heavenly King exhausted the treasury and recruited the brave and battle-hardened warriors from across the land, counting thirty thousand Jianghu practitioners and Qi cultivators, all granted the Domineering Body Technique, issued the Divine Gang Pill, and appointed as Dragon Ascending Middle Lang Generals.
Further, levies were raised in various states and counties, drafting two men out of every three and three out of every five. The edict ordered drafted soldiers to produce a cart per five men, two cows, fifteen dou of rice, and ten bolts of silk, with the penalty of beheading for those unprepared.
At the same time, tens of thousands of households from the Nine Border Provinces were relocated to Genzhou, undertaking extensive farming to supply military needs. All the people's horses were confiscated, with a penalty of waist severing for those who dared to hide them, totaling over one hundred forty thousand horses.
