Since the last heavy rain at night, the development of "Dongyang City" has been on the right track again.
After a day of construction, the fortress at the entrance to "Dongyang City" was completed and reached the design specifications after acceptance. After that, the protagonist sent a construction team to build a similar fortress at a predetermined location in the south.
After the construction was completed, Gun led 20 teams to the fortress and stocked up on a certain amount of food.
Every afternoon, the army of parasitic ants would arrive on time at the outskirts of the fortress and then attack the fortress.
Due to the obstruction of trenches and earthen embankments, the fortress defenders basically do not need to deal with sneak attacks by thread-parasitic bacteria. Although the parasitic ants have no strength, they can only suffer in the face of the defenders who are ready, well-disciplined and have a numerical advantage. And return.
Later, the protagonist even continued to rotate the garrison of the fortress to train all the soldier ants in "Dongyang City".
With the cover of the fortress, production activities in the southern area of "Dongyang City" can be carried out normally, and the protagonist intensifies the mining of salt mines.
The protagonist did not pay attention to this small salt mine before. After all, the ants only occasionally need to replenish salt, and usually rely on eating insect meat to meet most of their salt needs.
After the protagonist obtained a large amount of salt, he developed a new food of salted mealworms.
Due to the expansion of mealworm farms, the supply of large amounts of mature mealworms has exceeded the daily demand of the nests.
Since mealworms stop growing when the temperature is low in winter, in order to make up for the lack of meat in winter, excess mealworms are dried in the sun for preservation.
However, dried mealworms are stored underground and will become moldy in humid weather. The moldy dried mealworms can only be crushed and dried before being fed to mealworms or flies, which is a huge waste.
Once you have enough salt, you can make bacon. The bacon has a unique flavor and is quickly loved by ants. At the same time, the shelf life is also extended.
After having resources such as salt and cured meat, the protagonist also wonders whether he can carry out trade with other main and deputy nests to exchange what he has. However, considering that there is no trade system in the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, in terms of supplies, there is only a levy or assistance relationship between different nests, and there are currently no urgently needed supplies in "Dongyang City", this idea has been put on hold for the time being.
Later, the protagonist used clay mixed with ant saliva to improve the firing of pottery. Practice has shown that the pottery body made of the improved clay has a greatly improved yield after firing, and is not prone to deformation after firing.
Subsequently, the pottery production in "Dongyang City" began to increase. Many liquid or granular foods can be stored in special large pottery jars. After the lid is added to the pottery jar, it can ensure that the materials stored inside are relatively dry and prolong the storage time. time. Unlike before, liquid food could only be stored in the stomach of each ant, while other food was placed on the mud floor.
All the ant kings and queens were assigned some bowls, basins and jars. The protagonist taught them through the information package how to use clay jars to store water, and to use clay bowls and basins to hold and eat food.
Although these male and female ants suddenly changed their eating habits that have been used for millions of years, they were not able to adapt to it at first and were very resistant. However, after the protagonist brought up the divine decree and said that God also eats in this way, the objections were quickly eliminated.
During the process of firing pottery, the protagonist noticed that the surface of some burned pottery was covered with a smooth and delicate layer. These pottery blocks were as hard and sharp as finely crafted porcelain knives.
The protagonist studied the clay of this batch of pottery. Although it was also clay mixed with ant saliva, the clay had more impurities and was rich in fine particles of quartz and feldspar.
This batch of pottery was fired at too high a temperature. The quartz and feldspar particles melted during the high-temperature firing, giving the pottery a smooth and delicate coating on the surface. And because the temperature was too high, the pottery inside was burned.
After seeing these pottery remnants, the protagonist remembered something very important in the field of ceramics - glaze.
Glaze is a continuous glassy layer attached to the surface of the ceramic body, or a mixed layer of glass and crystal.
Glaze is made by mixing mineral raw materials (feldspar, quartz, talc, kaolin, etc.) in a certain proportion, grinding them into glaze slurry, applying it to the surface of the body, and calcining it at a certain temperature.
Glaze can increase the mechanical strength, thermal stability and dielectric strength of products, as well as beautify the utensils, facilitate cleaning, and resist corrosion.
The working people of ancient China learned the glaze-burning technology very early. As early as the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, our ancestors used rocks and mud to make glazes to decorate ceramics. Later, ceramic artists took advantage of the phenomenon that kiln ash naturally falls on the body to form glaze, and then used plant ash as a raw material for making glaze.
Since there are no kaolin resources and the temperature of the combustion chamber is not high enough, porcelain cannot be fired in "Dongyangcheng" yet. However, the performance of glazed pottery has been greatly improved compared to simple earthen pottery, second only to porcelain.
What the protagonist values most is that the glazed pottery fragments are very strong and sharp, and can completely replace metal knives when metal is not available.
Limited by their own limitations, ants rely on their large jaws to chop and tear larger objects, but they are helpless when faced with some strong materials (such as hard wood), which greatly limits the application of materials. . Tools can greatly improve productivity.
The protagonist was very interested in this. He asked the worker ants to collect a large amount of ant saliva, clay, quartz particles, feldspar particles, talcum powder, plant ash and other materials, make glaze slurry according to different proportions, and apply it on the shaped pottery knife Fired.
However, the final experimental results were not ideal. Some pottery knives were completely separated from the glaze layer, and some pottery knives were too brittle to be used.
The protagonist didn't have much time to spend on experiments, so he called the secretary and gave her a team of worker ants to command, and she was responsible for conducting experiments in different proportions.
Although the heavy rain has passed, its subsequent effects are not over yet.
The protagonist once accidentally discovered that some worker ants were discarding some germinated grass seeds into a garbage pile on the ground.
After questioning, I learned that the grass seeds were soaked when water entered the warehouse and were not dried in time, resulting in germination.
This kind of sprouted grass seeds taste bad. Now that there is abundant food, the ants don't like to eat them, so they just throw them outside.
But the protagonist has other ideas. "Dongyang City" now has a stable source of meat supply (mealworm farms), but the food supply still relies on collection, especially the collection of various grass seeds, and the harvest volume of this collection is not stable.
Previously, because food was relatively abundant and various things happened one after another, the protagonist never thought of developing agriculture.
Now that there are a large number of germinated grass seeds, the protagonist thinks, instead of throwing them away, it is better to plant these grass seeds. Maybe this will become the origin of ant agriculture.
