Rambotu led the remnants of the retreating troops to retreat to the mountaintop position, and the protagonist also landed.
Fortunately, due to the south wind blowing at this time, most of the enemy troops lost the movement of the God Envoy King's army, and only a few parasitic ants launched an attack on the top of the mountain.
After quickly crushing the sporadic offensive of the parasitic ants, the protagonist noticed that the parasitic ants that had lost their target began to bite and eat the corpses of soldiers on both sides on the battlefield.
The original battlefield was now full of limbs and blood, and countless parasitic ants fought over a piece of corpse, but they were very measured and did not cause any casualties to friendly parties.
Poor those legionnaires who failed to retreat, not only their corpses were left in the field, but they were also reduced to becoming prey in the enemy's belly.
The protagonist had no time to express his feelings. Taking advantage of the enemy's failure to catch up, the protagonist abandoned the defensive position on the top of the mountain and led the Divine Envoy King's army to quickly withdraw from the north slope and hid in the dense bushes.
It was already around three o'clock in the afternoon. The protagonist led the retreating army and fled north without taking a breather. He did not escape back to "Dongyang City" until after dark.
Rambowan, who was in charge of the rear, led five teams at the end, but luckily they did not encounter the pursuing army of parasitic ants. After picking up stragglers along the way, they did not withdraw until late at night.
Ants are not used to marching at night, but they have to do so to escape at this moment. Fortunately, a large amount of pheromones were left along the way during the expedition, which effectively helped the ants, who were almost blind in the dark, to identify their direction.
Rambo Fei and Rambo Fo, who came after hearing the news, were shocked when they saw the army fleeing in panic. The protagonist asked a worker ant to take Xiaoqing back for resettlement, and then asked Lambov to count the battle losses.
He himself plunged into the conference room and stayed alone. He needs to calm down. This time is the biggest setback he has encountered since time travel.
It was late at night before Rambofo reported the battle damage data to the protagonist.
Before the expedition, the Angel King's legion had a direct bodyguard and 30 squads, with a total of 30 kings and 1,554 soldiers.
After being defeated, the only ones who managed to escape back to "Dongyang City" were the Guards and 27 squads, 27 kings and 1,016 soldier ants. Except for the Guards, which suffered no losses, all other squads suffered heavy losses, and three squads were completely wiped out.
There are now only one hundred and fifty veteran soldier ants who have followed the protagonist since the expedition to the sub-nest occupied by the pavement ant barbarian army.
The protagonist lets the troops disband and let each of them recover and rest. Then he asked Hua Mulan to guard the entrance of the conference room with her guards and not let anyone in.
He stayed alone in the conference room all night, and at this moment he had mixed feelings in his heart.
Although he was a human before, even after traveling through time and becoming an ant, he has always hoped to become a human again one day.
All of his efforts were largely aimed at living like a human being: using fire, making pottery, making sedan chairs, sleeping on silk beds, and digging toilets.
However, as the time in this world increased, especially after returning to "Dongyang City" and becoming the actual ruler.
The protagonist slowly begins to regard the ants around him as intelligent beings similar to himself. After all, he now has the same body and genes as them.
Although this change in concept is subtle, the protagonist himself is not aware of it. But now he no longer regards ants as humble microorganisms that can be easily trampled to death as he did when he was still a human.
He regards Gun and the others as his brothers, Hua Mulan and Xiao Mi as his loyal subordinates, and all the ants in "Dongyang City" as his own people.
So at this moment, facing the tragic loss, it was impossible for him to remain indifferent. A painful feeling made him unable to restrain himself.
He is not the kind of famous general who shouts: "The number of casualties is not important" and "I will replenish it for you when you come back." He was not a successful person in his previous life, but he always had a petty spirit. Even when playing games, he wanted to pass the level without any loss.
But reality is not a game, there are no cheats or cheats.
This defeat was caused by the protagonist's arrogance and because he blindly sent troops without understanding the enemy's situation, without assistance or superior strength.
If we look at numbers purely, the loss of hundreds of ants cannot be a huge detriment to "Dongyang City". On the contrary, in wars in the ant world, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of casualties are the norm.
If the queen ants in "Dongyang City" work hard to produce, they can make up for these losses in less than half a day.
But what this war destroyed was the protagonist's blind self-confidence and pride, and incidentally also shook his confidence.
Fortunately, the protagonist quickly adjusted his mood, and the next day, he basically got over the shadow of failure.
As a small person, the protagonist suffered a tragic stock market crash in his previous life, bought virtual currencies that fell to the point of being worthless, and encountered betrayal of friendship and love. Each time, he survived with the help of psychological suggestions.
Now, the same goes for the protagonist. He tells himself that Cao Cao even cut off his beard and abandoned his robe. Zeng Guofan can only fight stupidly but can also fight repeatedly. What's the big deal if he only loses once?
This morning, the protagonist summoned the twenty-nine surviving kings to the conference room for a meeting.
In accordance with the protagonist's request, the kings actively carried out criticism and self-criticism in the conference room, summarizing the gains and losses of yesterday's battle.
These kings do not understand what criticism and self-criticism mean. However, as a natural fighting race, male ants have their own opinions on the gains and losses of fighting.
Most kings believed that the weak military strength was the main reason for the failure. Although the Divine Envoy King's army suffered heavy losses, the losses they caused to the enemy were three to four times that of their own. If there were sufficient troops, the kings expressed that they were not afraid of the parasitic ant army.
In their eyes, the dead ants are just numbers. Only when they mention the three kings who died in battle will they feel sad and sigh.
Rambotu's point of view is more pertinent. He believes that the individual combat effectiveness of the parasitic ants has surpassed that of ordinary big-headed ant warriors. In particular, the thread-parasitic fungi are difficult for the legionnaires to guard against and require a lot of energy. But the lack of command is the enemy's biggest disadvantage. He also believed that if there were the same number of legionnaires, they would definitely be able to easily defeat the parasitic ant army.
The protagonist personally made some self-criticism as an example. He criticized himself for underestimating the enemy and being conceited, and for not doing a sufficient job in investigating the enemy's situation.
As for how to eliminate the enemies of the parasitic ant nest, many kings proposed to request military assistance from the main nest. After all, "Dongyang City" has a large number of soldier ants and worker ants, but not enough male ants to command them.
However, the protagonist said that the main nest is busy cleaning up the remaining barbarian army of pavement ants, and there is no way to support the battlefield here. The truth is that the protagonist does not want to labor the army in the main nest, otherwise his fictitious authorization to send troops will be exposed.
The protagonist proposes that the queen ants in this nest lay one hundred male ant eggs, and at the same time, Rambo Fei teaches the second batch of fifty male ants born as soon as possible about war. After a new batch of kings take part in the wedding flight, they go out again to attack the parasitic ant nest.
As for the next wedding flight, the protagonist himself plans to set it in two months. Of course, when the time comes, we will have to use the name of God’s will.
All the kings present agreed to this suggestion
Finally, the protagonist requested that after every battle in the future, all kings should sum up their experiences and gains and losses as they did today. Although the kings were confused and did not understand the purpose of this, they still accepted the protagonist's order.
