If Feiyan had encountered this situation before her misfortune, she would have been extremely ashamed.
However, having experienced hardship and having followed Hong Xiaoduo for several months, the idea that women shouldn't show their faces in public no longer applies to Feiyan. She gracefully holds Yaoguang's hand and walks beside Hong Xiaoduo.
The officer who came to greet him from the military camp was Shao Feng, a deputy general who served under General Mu.
She greeted Quan Jinghuai warmly, but gave Hong Xiaoduo and Feiyan only a polite, symbolic nod.
“Young Master Quan, our general instructed that you should sit at the same table as him,” Shao Feng said.
Hearing this, Quan Jinghuai frowned slightly and looked in the direction Shao Feng was pointing. He saw a large square table set up alone in front of a large tent, with a general sitting in the main seat. When he saw him looking over, the general raised his hand to greet him.
There were two other people at the table wearing military uniforms, and the seat to the right of the general was empty.
"They arranged it at that big table," Shao Feng said, pointing to the long table that had been put together not far away.
"Brother Quan, you go ahead." Hong Xiaoduo noticed that Quan Jinghuai was a little unhappy about being placed in a secluded location, so she quickly spoke up.
Quan Jinghuai walked over and whispered, "The reason they invited us here is because of the pirates, but isn't that you...?"
Just then, a soldier called out to Shao Feng that something was up, so he came over.
Hong Xiaoduo knew what Quan Jinghuai meant, so she quickly interrupted and whispered, "Brother Quan, we didn't come here to ask for credit. Besides, even if it wasn't me, Brother Quan, the outcome would have been the same if you had gone forward to deal with the pirates."
It's just a meal, don't overcomplicate things.
"Let's sit further back; we'll be more comfortable eating there."
Hearing her say that, Quan Jinghuai nodded and walked towards General Mu's table.
Hong Xiaoduo led Feiyan and the children to the table that Shao Feng had just pointed to and sat down.
From where she was sitting, she could see Quan Jinghuai and his group at their table, watching them greet each other with clasped hands.
The dishes were served quickly. Hong Xiaoduo thought that since it was a military camp stationed near the sea, the dishes would have a higher proportion of seafood, but there was only large yellow croaker, and the meat dishes were chicken, duck, mutton, beef, and pork.
The taste was pretty good, and Hong Xiaoduo and her two classmates enjoyed it very much.
The lamb trotters were stewed to perfection and were very flavorful. Seeing Hong Xiaoduo grabbing one with her hands and gnawing on it, Fei Yan hesitated for a moment before reaching out and grabbing one as well. However, she ate it in a more refined manner than Hong Xiaoduo.
The way the two adults and seven children were eating so diligently attracted the attention of the soldiers at the next table. Judging from their attire and eating habits, they didn't seem like people who didn't usually get to eat good food.
The lamb trotters weren't served according to the number of people. The person at the table closest to Hong Xiaoduo and the others saw that the large plate of lamb trotters was empty, so they discussed it with their tablemates and brought theirs over: "If you like this, you can have it."
Looking at the plate of lamb trotters on the table in front of her, Hong Xiaoduo turned her head and thanked them with a smile.
She didn't say anything about not needing anything and accepted it without any hesitation.
This stewed lamb trotters is really delicious!
"By the way, sir, your mission to suppress the pirates at sea went quite smoothly, didn't it? Did you capture the second-in-command of the pirates alive?" Hong Xiaoduo turned around and asked the soldier who had just given her the sheep's hoof.
His military uniform didn't look like that of an ordinary soldier; he must be a junior officer in the army.
When she inquired about this matter, everyone at that table looked over and shook their heads.
"No, what do you mean by shaking your heads? Did he escape? Actually, it's not surprising that he escaped. That guy is just a coward." Thinking back to the night the big ship escaped, Hong Xiaoduo didn't think it was surprising that the second-in-command had escaped.
"The general ordered his men to interrogate the prisoners you captured and immediately send troops to surround and annihilate them. However, after taking down their stronghold, the information obtained from the interrogation was that none of the ships or people who went out of the island that night had returned to the island."
We searched the sea and found some planks floating on an area, and pulled out an unconscious man lying on one of them. When he woke up and we asked him, we learned that the man was a pirate who said that the ship that went out that night had inexplicably broken apart on its way back to the island.
Because the island is too far away, even those who are good swimmers do not have enough strength to swim back.
He witnessed firsthand how his injured companions were devoured by sharks attracted by the blood in the sea.
As for the second-in-command the young lady had just asked about, the man said he hadn't seen him since the boat broke apart. He didn't know where he'd been swept away, or if he'd ended up in a shark's belly. He told Yang Tizi.
The general didn't order these things to be kept secret. Besides, the success of this bandit suppression was largely thanks to this group, so there's nothing that can't be said!
The ship fell apart? Oh ho? Great!
Could it be that it was scattered by her own pebble? As soon as the thought came to mind, Hong Xiaoduo felt it was too ridiculous. How could that be?
Even if the stones were powerful enough to create a hole in the hull, and even if the hull flooded, it would still sink, not cause such a large ship to fall apart.
Hong Xiaoduo thought of the dead bodies that washed ashore on the beach after that night; they must have been the pirates who fell into the water from the ship!
"Their stronghold was wiped out, and their leader was killed by you. Even if that second-in-command managed to escape, it won't be so easy for him to gather people and start his old business again."
"Besides, now that our General Mu is stationed here, we will absolutely not allow the pirates to have any chance of making a comeback." A general at another table spoke up after hearing the conversation.
Hong Xiaoduo smiled and nodded, agreeing with his statement.
She glanced up unintentionally and saw Brother Quan, who was sitting at the same table as General Mu, looking in her direction.
Hong Xiaoduo raised the lamb hoof she had just picked up in her hand, shook it, and then looked away.
At this distance, Hong Xiaoduo didn't notice that Quan Jinghuai was actually distracted.
He had just asked General Mu about the matter of suppressing pirates at sea, because he knew that Hong Xiaoduo was very curious, otherwise she would not have agreed to come to the banquet.
So he asked.
General Mu then recounted the events leading up to and following the bandit suppression campaign, as well as the gains made.
Quan Jinghuai remained unmoved by the rest of the conversation, as he was a seasoned traveler and such things were not surprising to him.
However, when he heard that the second-in-command and his crew had not returned to their hideout, and that the survivors later found at sea had learned that the large ship had inexplicably fallen apart that night, Quan Jinghuai felt a chill run down his spine and his heart pounded like a drum.
In particular, the man to General Mu's left said that the way the ship disintegrated was strange, because they knew that area of the sea and there were no reefs. The information provided by the pirates indicated that the large, disintegrated ship was a relatively new vessel that had only been at sea for a few years.
They were familiar with that sea area, but the pirates were naturally even more familiar with it than they were!
Quan Jinghuai immediately recalled the scene from that night when he went to look for the seven disciples' little "woman" and saw her furiously brandishing her sword at the fleeing ship...
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