As it turned out, Guillaume Guerin was not just a bookish nerd who could talk a good game. In only two days Kenji had received his rear-line grain-levy plan. During that brief span the man had rifled through a stack of central-bureau files, straightened out every relationship involved, and produced a detailed map of the powerful families' networks and assets across the empire—especially those in Hexi County.
No one knew how many "livers" he had to stay up that long, but he still managed to sort the grain-hoarding gentry and officials into neat categories, describing in detail whether they skimmed cash and grain, hid acreage, or simply bought up stores outright. Heaven knew how he divided things so finely; the main point was that he had a counter-measure for every single type.
