It’s hard to break a phoenix’s destiny

Chapter 616: Fengyang City Welcome Banquet

Liang Wenbao, the prefect of Fengyang City, had heard the news that Li Lianhua was coming with a large army. He stood at the gate with his servants and waited with great courtesy. When he saw Li Lianhua, he saluted her according to the highest etiquette and did not neglect her at all because she was a woman.

He even said with red eyes: "I have heard of General Liu Yue and General Li for a long time, and I admire them, but I have never met them. I didn't expect that... even if I only met General Li today, it would be enough."

Seeing Liang Wenbao being so respectful, Li Lianhua quickly dismounted, reached out to help him up, and said in a deep voice: "Sir Liang, there is no need to be like this. I am here today to suppress the bandits by order of the emperor. I hope Sir Liang will cooperate with me."

"Of course! Your humble servant is extremely grateful to Your Majesty, and to General Li for coming. You know, over the years, all the products in our Fengyang City have been robbed by these bandits, and we are almost starving." Liang Wenbao bent down and bowed, becoming more polite.

The spies didn't know much about this man, except that he was a civil servant who remained neutral and didn't offend anyone, and had no merits or faults. The people of Fengyang City had a mediocre opinion of him, because they had some complaints about him because of the banditry.

He really lived a life of "an eighty-year-old mother and a three-year-old child", with a wife, a concubine, a son and a daughter, and a small house. He worked diligently in the government office every day.

However, being able to preserve Fengyang City from war in the midst of chaos was already a very good thing. Li Lianhua was a female general in armor and much younger than Liang Wenbao, so it was even more inappropriate for her to have too much contact with him. So when she saw Liang Wenbao still bowed to answer, she just took a half step back and waited until Liang Wenbao straightened up again before saying, "Go into the city first, and we'll talk later."

"Yes, yes, yes." Liang Wenbao quickly wiped his eyes and called the soldiers guarding the city to open the gate. Li Lianhua jumped on his horse and led an army of 10,000 people into Fengyang City.

Yang Xianyong sat in the carriage at the back, lifting the curtain to look at the street view.

Fengyang City was neither too big nor too small, and was very clean and tidy. Because they knew that the army would enter the city today, there were no stalls on the streets, and even the shops facing the street had temporarily closed their doors and were not open for business.

Their team still hung a large banner with the Chinese character "Liu" on it and slowly marched through the streets. People could be seen hiding behind doors and occasionally peeking out to watch the excitement, but there was no panic on their faces.

Perhaps it was because Fengyang City was not affected by the war, and the people here still maintained a certain standard of living, and they did not look skinny and hungry. Yang Xianyong even saw a lot of roast chicken, roast duck and pork shops, and they estimated that they would open for business as soon as they got there.

It is difficult to arrange an army of 10,000 people all at once. Liang Wenbao suggested that Li Lianhua divide these people into three parts and let them live in the government office, the parade ground and the academy respectively. He sent some food so that everyone could have a meal first.

Li Lianhua was also very satisfied with this arrangement. She asked her deputy general Shi Long to handle it, while she took Yang Xianyong and followed Liang Wenbao to the government office.

Liang Wenbao naturally prepared a welcoming banquet for them, with eight dishes and one soup, which looked quite exquisite. In particular, there was a dish of spicy meatball soup from Dajin, which moved Li Lianhua and Yang Xianyong very much. After all, they had been away from Luoyang for a long time, and it was inevitable that they sighed in their hearts when they tasted such delicious food. The look they gave Liang Wenbao became much gentler and closer.

During the dinner, Liang Wenbao also introduced in detail the banditry problem that Fengyang City had faced in recent years. The militia he specially established also gathered today, waiting for Li Lianhua's lecture at the parade ground. Hearing this, Li Lianhua silently clenched his fist.

After all, she was a woman. Even though she had lived in the army with Liu Yue for many years, she had never given a speech in public. She was also very worried that she did not have enough momentum and could not bring honor to Liu's army.

Yang Xianyong had been eating with his head down, not saying anything. At this moment, he suddenly looked up and said, "General Li has had a cold these days, and his throat is not feeling well. I'll go in your place."

"Who is this?" Liang Wenbao had actually been wanting to ask Li Lianhua who these deputy generals who were eating with him were. Since Li Lianhua did not introduce them, these people sat down and ate with big mouthfuls of food, which made Liang Wenbao feel a little awkward. At least he felt that these people were too vulgar.

But Li Lianhua didn't feel too much, because they had eaten together like this before, without much distinction. Before, Yang Xianyong had said that it was not good for her to not distinguish between the superior and the inferior, but she said that this was the rule set by Liu Yue and she couldn't break it.

Yang Xianyong had no choice but to shut up and just followed her and ate with his head down.

The other lieutenants ate even faster. In the blink of an eye, they finished several bowls of rice and stared at the CDs with vegetable soup, thinking that they should rinse them with water and drink them.

Yang Xianyong also ate with them along the way, how could he not know their little thoughts, he smiled and said to Liang Wenbao: "Sir Liang, we are all lieutenants of General Li, this is Lieutenant General He, Lieutenant General Li, Lieutenant General Chang, Lieutenant General Yu, my last name is Yang, you can just call me Lieutenant General Yang."

"Deputy General Yang." Liang Wenbao bowed to him, "It's just that he looks very familiar, but I can't remember where he is at the moment..."

"I don't think I have met Lord Liang." Yang Xianyong smiled. Apart from his leg injury, he had no other problems. And because he had finally been safe and sound recently, he ate more and gradually recovered to the appearance of a noble young man. Moreover, he had a third sister who was extremely beautiful, so his appearance was naturally not much different, and he even had the aura of a mature and handsome man.

"But, Deputy General Yang... Deputy General Yang..." Liang Wenbao stared at Yang Xianyong with wide eyes, and suddenly asked: "Marquis Xingjin... May I ask, who is Yang Xuanzhi to you?"

Yang Xianyong was also a little surprised. He was stunned for a moment before answering, "My father."

"Oh my, I actually met the son of an old friend." Liang Wenbao immediately stood up and walked quickly to Yang Xianyong. Yang Xianyong did not dare to continue sitting, and when he stood up, Liang Wenbao hugged him.

At this time, he was heard crying, "Your father and I were good friends. We took the imperial examination together in Luoyang. His knowledge was much better than mine. We often drank and talked late into the night... You probably don't remember me, but I held you in my arms when you were born..."

Liang Wenbao was so excited that he was incoherent and he held Yang Xianyong tightly and refused to let go.