Everyone walked along the winding path all the way to a secluded courtyard, and Ah Xia casually whispered a few words to the maid standing outside the door to greet her.

Entering the room, waiting for the servants to light the lights around them, the hall that was a little dim was instantly brightly lit, the whole room was set up in an antique style, the walls were wrapped with natural color wooden boards, there were more than a dozen celebrity calligraphy and paintings hanging on them, the floor was paved with a foot square of marble, and there was only one table in the spacious hall, and behind it was a bedroom for people to rest.

The dinner was very rich, the frying, cooking and frying stewed matched with the dishes, bowls, bowls, bowls, pots, pots, and pots, and there was no lack of lightness in the dazzling luxury, and before the banquet, Uncle Chen, who boasted that he had even tasted the royal banquet, was full of praise, and Liu Fan and Wang Kai almost swallowed their tongues.

Because Miss A Xia sat next to her, during the meal, Liu Fan asked in a low voice about the shareholders of Yihong Courtyard, and Miss A Xia, who didn't know what the shareholder was, finally understood after Liu Fan spent a lot of words, but immediately regretfully said that this was the top trade secret of Yihong Courtyard, even if Liu Fan made great contributions to Yihong Courtyard today, he really couldn't disclose it.

But the focus of Liu Fan's inquiry is not this, he just wants to find out Ah Xia's position in Yihongyuan, is she the chairman, general manager or financial director?

After a painstaking communication between the two of them, they finally figured out that the corporate governance structure of Yihong Yuan was equivalent to a partnership in later generations, except for a few other shareholders who could not disclose it, but her own affairs were made clear to Liu Fan.

According to her, she is only one of the shareholders, but she is the most powerful executive manager, and she is actually responsible for all the business operations of Yihong Hospital, with a generous monthly salary and a year-end dividend.

Liu Fan wanted to figure out that these were just used to determine whether Ah Xia could get out of Yihong Courtyard, if Ah Xia couldn't leave Yihong Courtyard, it would be more difficult to match Wang Kai and Ah Xia.

After listening to the introduction, Liu Fan already understood that it was impossible for Ah Xia to leave Yihong Courtyard, but he still wanted to work hard for Wang Kai, and after revealing a little bit of Wang Kai's intention to marry Ah Xia's girl, Ah Xia's delicate and old face showed a rare trace of shyness, saying that Wang Kai had expressed this intention to himself many times, but since Liu Fan officially proposed it to her today, she would consider it carefully and give Liu Fan an answer after a while.

Seeing that the purpose of coming here today has been achieved, Liu Fan also put his mind down to concentrate on eating and drinking, Qingqian and A Xia took turns to toast the four of them, and also asked the maid to call Qingyue and Qingxin two girls to toast, not only Liu Fan, Wang Kai and Uncle Chen drank a little high, even Li Min also drank a lot of wine, and finally wanted to roll up his sleeves and Qingqian guess the boxing order, Liu Fan saw that it would be impossible to drink like this again, so he had to drag out Li Min, who was already drunk.

Ah Xia, who sent him all the way, quietly stuffed a piece of jade pendant into Liu Fan's hand when she went out, and whispered, "The small courtyard that entertained Liu Fan and his party today will be left to Liu Fan in the future. ”

Liu Fan wondered in his heart, "I just helped the Qingqian girl get a list of the flower list competition, I don't know how much gold this list is, Yihong Yuan paid such a big price to thank herself, can it still be compared with the list determined by the official examination of Daqi?" ”

At the intersection of the Loess Plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Inner Mongolia Plateau, there is a majestic and precipitous mountain like a majestic oolong, its head rises to the west, and the main peak of the northern mountain system of the Qilian Mountains, Lenglongling, is far away, and the tail extends dozens of kilometers to the east through Maomao Mountain and Laohu Mountain, and enters the gentle Loess Plateau, which is known for its steep mountain and dangerous terrain and is famous for the eastern peak of the northern mountain system of the Qilian Mountains.

Hongchi Ridge is about 30 miles long from east to west, about 20 miles wide from north to south, its south is the strange and mysterious Maya Snow Mountain, the Lei Gong Mountain in the north is towering into the clouds, the Niutou Mountain is shrouded in clouds and mist, the two mountains stand side by side, each shows its majestic posture.

Looking to the west, the wall of Hongchi Valley stands thousands of thousands, the pass is Tiancheng, the hanging rock is dangerous, the sky opens a line, there is the surging Jinqiang River and the abundant water and grass to grasp the Xixiulong grassland in Lingnan, and there is the small basin of Anyuan that the locals are known as "golden basin fish farming" in Lingbei.

Because Hongchiling is bordered by the Loess Plateau in the east, the Hexi Corridor in the north, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the south, the strategic location is extremely important, and has always been an important pass on the Silk Road.

General Han Huo led the army out of Longxi, attacked the Xiongnu, collected Hexi, incorporated Hexi into the territory of the Western Han Dynasty, built the Great Wall west of Lingju, and crossed the Hongchi Ridge through the Zhuanglang River Valley.

The most tragic is the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Hexi region has appeared in the former Liang, Hou Liang, South Liang, North Liang and West Liang and other places to divide the regime, they take Liangzhou City as the center, Hongchiling as a barrier to defend and protect national security, almost every few years, under the Hongchi Ridge to kill the blood into a river......

When the forbidden army and local guards of Daqi had no time to look east in response to the invasion of strong enemies in the north, this steep mountain ushered in a group of demon kings who lived by robbery, and in the past ten years of occupying Hongchiling, this group of people has continued to grow and develop, as if they have become the local emperors of the people near Liangzhou, they are the bandit Qiu Mazi and his brothers who are now known as the biggest tumor in the northwest region......

But in this way, a group of people who are rumored to be extremely vicious have been entrenched in Hongchiling for more than ten years.

When Liu Fan first learned about these situations, he was very puzzled, didn't he say that if he did too much injustice, he would kill himself, why did this group of people live well for so many years, could it be that "good people don't live long, and disasters will last for thousands of years?" ”

With this kind of doubt, when Liu Fan received the task of exterminating Qiu Mazi, he immediately had a detailed understanding of Qiu Mazi and his affairs through a variety of channels, not only from the Liangzhou prefect's yamen and the past archives kept in the camp, but also visited several generals and lieutenants who had participated in the extermination of Qiu Mazi, from which he also slowly got a glimpse of Qiu Mazi's situation.

Judging from the information learned, Qiu Mazi is as cunning as a fox, in addition to having a body of martial arts, the biggest advantage is that this person has a very high alertness, not only has a nest in Hongchiling, but also has a hidden residence in Leigong Mountain and Niutou Mountain, once the situation is tense, he immediately tries to escape after a little resistance.

There were one or two official troops who attacked his base camp close to the main peak of Hongchi Ridge, but he had already fled when he learned the news, leaving only hundreds of empty camps for the official army.

Liu Fan felt that he had encountered the first big problem after coming to Daqi, from the analysis of the current situation, Qiu Mazi's bandit team is not very many, probably less than 2,000, the key is to capture Qiu Mazi and annihilate his team, which is difficult, but there is no way, no matter how difficult it is, you have to go head-on.

Now, Liu Fan, Ma Qiang and several other soldiers are sitting in the courtyard of the inn at the foot of the northern slope of Hongchi Ridge to eat, and several people are disguised as merchants from Changsong, and they have driven seven or eight loads of mountain goods to Jincheng Mansion to sell.

Raise your eyes to the west, the majestic main peak of Hongchi Ridge is high in sight, standing majestically in a world of ice and snow, it is said that Qiu Mazi's base camp is in a valley not far to the west of the main peak of Hongchi Ridge.

There is only the boss and a guy in the small inn, although the boss looks only in his forties, but his sideburns have gray hair, his face is as rough as tree bark is full of wrinkles, and the guy is strong and sturdy.

Obviously, this inn is a bit suspicious.

Judging from the situation, Qiu Mazi is not like ordinary bandits who do not eat the grass by the nest, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is implementing the three-light policy in the surrounding areas, and the nearby villages and populations are almost extinct, especially the mountain people who used to make a living by hunting or digging mountain goods have become extinct in the mountains of Hongchiling and its vicinity.

After these methods, no one knew about the situation of the bandits in the Hongchiling Mountains, even if it was only a few words......

Liu Fan and his entourage crossed Changsong into the narrow Hongchi Canyon until they reached the north slope of Hongchi Ridge, and the actual situation they saw was completely consistent with the information they had before, since entering the Hongchi Valley, the people were extinct, and the villages along the way were abandoned, except for a few businessmen who were in a hurry, Liu Fan and several people did not see anyone else, and these are the suspicious things about this inn.