Since Qiu Mazi is practicing the means of cutting grass and eradicating the roots around, why did he leave such a small inn alone, and this inn is located in this place where birds don't, what support does his business rely on? Just rely on a few merchants?

In order to verify their ideas, Liu Fan and his entourage simply stayed in the inn that night, and several people secretly hoped that something would happen at night, but the whole night was calm.

After breakfast the next day, a few people climbed over the relatively low mountain range near the tail of Hongchi Ridge in one go, and they were safe and sound after walking out for more than ten miles.

Ma Qiang was puzzled, "I really can't figure out if there is a problem with this inn, if there is a problem, then until now, the bandits have not caught up and robbed?" Say no problem, choosing to open an inn in such a place, are you doing business, or are you waiting for death? ”

In the afternoon of the same day, on the side of the official road under the southern slope of the Hongchi Mountains, I encountered a lonely small inn, which was also run by two men......

At this point, Liu Fan suddenly understood, these two inns are like the two 'eyes' of the bandits in Hongchiling, he is definitely not concerned about the past merchants, but from the officials and troops in the two directions of Liangzhou and Jincheng, as long as the officers and troops in the two directions have a stir, then the two inns can immediately use the agreed way to warn the bandit troops near the main peak, so that Qiu Mazi can deploy countermeasures in time according to the information obtained, if the officers and troops are strong, they can also choose to escape calmly from one direction.

If you don't try to avoid these two 'eyes', let alone catch Qiu Mazi, you can't even touch the edge of Qiu Mazi's main force.

And Qiu Mazi must have arranged for someone to contact these two 'eyes' day and night, as long as something happens to the 'eyes', Qiu Mazi will definitely be able to detect the danger in time.

"Brother Fanzi, if he doesn't pay attention to and rob the merchants along the way, then what does Qiu Mazi rely on to eat?" After listening to Liu Fan's explanation, Ma Qiang said suspiciously.

"This is Qiu Mazi's cleverness, he eradicated all the villages and populations around Hongchiling, in order to prevent these places from revealing the situation in Hongchiling Mountains to the outside world, in fact, from the situation we have walked through in the past five or six days, there are not many villages along the way, and the largest of the villages we see seems to be only twenty or thirty families, Qiu Mazi must understand that these small villages are not capable of providing for themselves at all, and leaving these villages will inevitably have people to report to the government, it is better to simply eradicate this."

"Second, Qiu Mazi also understands that to maintain the livelihood of nearly 2,000 people, it can only be a drop in the bucket by robbing a few merchants along the road, so he simply does not rob a single businessman, which is why we returned to our hometown last time and came all the way this time safely."

"Brother Fanzi, according to what you said, what does Qiu Mazi rely on to maintain the food and drink of 2,000 people, you said a lot, but I still don't understand."

"He relied on robbing larger villages or towns, and he may also directly rob nearby county seats, and from the three years to the present, he has gone out to commit crimes, and his targets are almost all large villages and towns with a population of hundreds of households."

"And for the robbery of these villages and towns, Qiu Mazi only robbed property, never hurt people's lives, and afterwards the local officials said in the description after the on-site inspection, he did not rob all families, he only robbed the property of large families, and he only took half of each robbed family, leaving half of the food for the people to give them hope to live."

"Also, judging from the robbery situation after Qiu Mazi attacked Guangwu County last time, it can also be shown that this can also be illustrated, he only killed many resisting defending soldiers when he captured Guangwu County, and after entering the city, except for looting property, he almost didn't hurt anyone."

"And that time in Guangwu County, in addition to vacating the official warehouse and robbing a few rich people, the homes of ordinary people were almost not moved, which cannot but be said to be a reason why Qiu Mazi was able to gain a foothold in the northwest for more than ten years without being eradicated."

"Oh, Brother Fanzi, this truth can also be explained, but I am a little puzzled now, what kind of person is this Qiu Mazi, judging from his eradication of the villages and populations around Hongchiling, he is a bandit who does all kinds of evil, and judging from the fact that he only robbed property and did not hurt people's lives when he robbed large villages and towns and Guangwu County, I feel that he still has a trace of conscience that has not been extinguished......"

"I haven't figured this out yet, so I can only wait for us to sit down and talk to him in detail after we catch Qiu Mazi, and he will answer your questions."

Liu Fan and his entourage arrived at Jincheng Mansion on 17 October, and immediately returned after unloading the goods, and rushed to Liangzhou at noon on 21 October because they did not delay any longer on the way back.

Because more than half a month has passed since he came back from visiting relatives in his hometown, Liu Fan estimates that Uncle Su and Dong Zi and their families have also returned to Liangzhou, so Liu Fan asked a few relatives to return to the camp, and he and Ma Qiang rushed directly to the newly bought yard......

The courtyard is actually not far from the yamen of the Liangzhou prefect's mansion, it is actually on a street behind Fudong Street, where the Li Mansion and the Guo Mansion are located, if you can go out from the back garden of the Li Mansion or the Guo Mansion, it will be directly diagonally opposite the main gate of Liu Fan's new home.

Looking at the façade, although it can't be compared with those high-ranking houses on Fudong Street, it is already quite magnificent on this back street, and the gate has been scrubbed at this time, and even the steps paved with stone to enter the door have been washed clean.

Ma Qiang just went up and patted the door knocker, and the courtyard door immediately opened a crack in the middle, poking out a small head with a double bun, and when he saw that it was Liu Fan and the two, he immediately screamed in surprise, "Ah! Big brother, why are you? ”

Chenchen immediately threw himself into Liu Fan's arms and said in surprise, and immediately shouted inside, "Dad, mother, big brother is back!" ”

Chenchen was followed by a slightly older little girl, who was Uncle Su's youngest daughter Lingling.

"Why can't it be me? What are you two doing at the door? As he spoke, he stuffed the rock sugar gourd he had just bought when he entered the city into the hands of the two little girls.

As soon as he saw the rock sugar gourd, Chen Chen didn't even bother to say anything, and took half a bite of the rock sugar gourd impatiently, Liu Fan immediately saw the little girl's intoxicated expression.

After all, Lingling is two years older than Chenchen, and after listening to Liu Fan's question, she immediately replied, "Big brother, there are too many people who have come to the house in the past two days, and they are all here to congratulate you, Daddy said, there are many people who are big officials, and some people are older than Daddy's officials!" We are guarding the door to open the door for those who rejoice. ”

Chen Chen also couldn't wait to say, "Big brother, there are two older sisters, they look like fairies, and the second brother said that they are all your good friends!" ”

"Your second brother is talking nonsense!"

While speaking, a large group of people such as uncle, aunt, and uncle Su had already poured out of the courtyard, and the aunt said happily, "I heard that you went to Jincheng, and I thought you would come back in two days, but I didn't expect to come back so soon, Chenchen come down quickly, your eldest brother is too tired after a day's journey." ”

Three or two steps over, grabbed Liu Fan's arm and looked at it carefully, "I heard that you haven't stopped for a day, and you can't even take a bite of hot rice, you see that it's only been a few days, and you've lost weight compared to last time." As he spoke, his eyes couldn't help but turn red again.

Liu Fan hurriedly said, "Mother, that's as serious as you said, it sounds like I'm weak, you see me like this, even a smaller yak can't withstand my weight." As soon as they heard Liu Fan's words, everyone couldn't help but look at each other.

"It's all nonsense, there's a comparison between yourself and a livestock!"

When Liu Fan insisted on kneeling down and kowtowing to his uncle and aunt, and he and Ma Qiang bowed respectfully to Uncle Su and Aunt Su, the two families and Ma Qiang came to the main hall lively.

During the meal, Liu Fan learned that the family affairs of Dong Zi and Hui'er had been completely decided, and the first five of the "six rites" of the "six rites" that should be married to the family had all been completed, and only one was left to welcome the family, and the date had been set, so it was chosen on the fifth day of the first month of the sixth year of Zhihe.

In addition, I heard Uncle Su say that he and Dong Zi had gone to the Shence Army yesterday to report, knowing that the two families had moved from the countryside to Fucheng, and several groups of people had come to congratulate them in the past two days, not only Wang Kai, Li Min, Ling Han and others had already come yesterday, but in the morning Li Shouyi actually led a group of brigade commanders of the Shence Army to the door together, and Ma Youlai accompanied Qi Boyuan who had just left before Liu Fan entered the door, accompanied by Zhang Ting and Geng Dawei......

"Ah, Deputy Chief Manager Qi is also here, so why don't you stay for a while."