Through the flying knight's field of vision, the protagonist saw three huge bodies in the middle of the marching column composed of smaller ants.
These are three gourd-shaped insects with black carapace that shine in the sunlight. The front of the insect's head is fan-shaped, with fish-scale wrinkles on the surface. There is a square angular process with a thick bottom and a sharp top in the middle of the head. There is also a transverse ridge in the middle of the pronotum. The middle section of the ridge is slightly curved forward into an obtuse angle, and there is a tooth-like angular process on both sides.
This is a dung beetle. Among the three dung beetles, the smallest one is also one decimeter long, and the largest one is 50% larger than the smallest one.
They stand in the army of parasitic ants, as conspicuous as armored war elephants standing in the human army.
This bold flying knight lowered his height and quickly passed by a height of only three centimeters from the back of one of the dung beetles. His bold behavior quickly attracted the attention of the pale gold worker ants and the big worker ants, but before the enemy could react, the flying knight had already raised his altitude and retreated.
With a startling glance from a low-altitude flight, the protagonist saw dozens of thread-parasitic fungi densely growing in the gaps between the carapace on the back of this dung beetle. This dung beetle seemed to be a moving thread-parasitic fungus bonsai.
Why are dung beetles in the military formation of parasitic ants, and they seem to be acting together, rather than being carried away as prey by the parasitic ants?
Could it be that parasitic ants have been able to tame large beetles like dung beetles? The protagonist once thought about domesticating beetles as draft animals. Although this plan has not yet been implemented, it is still feasible by referring to the case of successfully domesticating flies. Could it be that parasitic ants have also mastered the method of domesticating insects?
How is this possible? We must know that the Big-headed Ant Kingdom has a history of hundreds or thousands of years, and its technological progress is also extremely slow. How could these parasitic ants achieve a technological leap in such a short period of time after migrating?
Could it be that the technology for domesticating flies in "Dongyang City" was leaked? This is impossible. There are only a few ants in the entire "Dongyang City" that have mastered the domestication technology, and they are all under strict control. It is impossible for parasitic ants to come into contact with them.
Or is it due to thread parasites? The protagonist once witnessed a dung beetle and a dead leaf butterfly eating at the "Ant Corpse Pyramid", and then were infected by the mycelium larvae on the corpse pile.
Can different insects infected by thread parasitic bacteria coexist peacefully or even fight together? The protagonist has no experience or intelligence in this area, but judging from the Flying Knight's investigation, the most likely and worst situation is that the parasitic dung beetle is a secret weapon that the enemy can effectively command.
The army of parasitic ants was interspersed with three huge parasitic dung beetles. The scene was like Hannibal's army crossing the Alps surrounded by tall war elephants.
The protagonist, and the fortress he is in, will soon be attacked by such an enemy force.
The protagonist's brain is running at high speed. Such an enemy army has never been encountered before, especially the huge war elephant-like parasitic dung beetle.
How should we deal with this seemingly very powerful monster?
Going out to fight? Not to mention whether we can deal with these three parasitic dung beetles, if we abandon the strong fortress and go out to fight, the combination of parasitic ants and thread parasitic fungi alone is enough to drink a pot of the God's Envoy King's army.
Continue to stick to the fortress? If we still follow the previous tactics, the clay bombs of the long-range troops will definitely not be able to cause damage to these three parasitic dung beetles with rough skin and thick flesh. The city wall defenders obviously cannot stop the attack of this parasitic dung beetle. When a large number of parasitic ants rush in through the gap created by the parasitic dung beetle, the Angel King's army will be forced to be involved in harsh street fighting.
So how to deal with parasitic dung beetles? There has been successful experience in dealing with war elephants in human history. Can we learn from it?
The protagonist anxiously recalls the gradually blurred memories in his mind, which are the knowledge he learned from books, TV, and movies in his previous life.
War elephants are special troops that appeared in the history of ancient human wars. They played the role of tanks in modern armies in ancient wars. The trained war elephants charge into battle and are invincible. They can break down city gates, destroy fortresses, dismantle weapons, trample enemy troops, and trap enemy formations, often causing great damage to the enemy. War elephant troops appeared in ancient South Asia, Southeast Asia, southern China, West Asia, North Africa and Europe.
But in history, there are many examples of successful defeats of war elephants.
In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", when Zhuge Liang went south to conquer Menghuo, he faced a disadvantage in the first battle against King Mulu's elephant soldiers and ferocious beasts. When fighting again, Zhuge Liang prepared a fire-breathing wooden beast, scared off the war elephant monster of the southern barbarians, defeated the wooden deer king, and captured Meng Huo for the sixth time. Zhuge Liang took advantage of the animal's fear of fire.
In ancient Europe, armies from many countries used war elephants to fight against Rome. The Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire also accumulated rich experience in dealing with war elephants.
In the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, the charge of the war elephants under Hannibal did not achieve the expected results because the Roman army's formation left a channel for the enemy's war elephants to charge.
In the Battle of Tapsus in 46 BC, Caesar equipped the Fifth Legion with a tomahawk and commanded the legionaries to focus on attacking the legs of the war elephant. The legion withstood the charge of the war elephant, and then the war elephant became the leader of the Fifth Legion. logo.
During the Battle of Tapsus, it is said that pigs became an effective weapon against war elephants. Pliny the Elder recorded: "War elephants will be frightened by the screams of the smallest pigs." It is said that during a siege of the city of Megara, the Megarians poured boiling oil on a group of pigs, causing the pigs to become covered with blood. They caught fire and drove them towards the enemy's war elephants. Facing the screaming pigs with flames on their bodies, the war elephants fled in fear.
The Romans' methods of dealing with war elephants included: avoiding the frontal impact of war elephants, attacking the weak points of the elephant's body (trunk and legs), and taking advantage of certain characteristics of the elephant (fear of fire, fear of pig noises).
When Timur invaded India, in a battle in 1398, he faced a powerful enemy with more than a hundred war elephants. Timur used a large number of cavalry to delay the charge of the war elephants. Then he ordered burning straw to be piled on the backs of the camels. The smoke generated by the burning drove the camels forward, causing the enemy's war elephants to be frightened and retreat. , in the end Timur won a great victory. This is also the use of fire and smoke to scare war elephants.
It can be seen that when faced with such huge war weapons as war elephants, both Chinese and foreign military strategists rarely confront the enemy head-on. Instead, they make full use of their weakness - fear of fire.
So, can this trick also be used to deal with parasitic dung beetles? The protagonist lowered his head and looked at the ground. Under his feet, there was a burning fire inside the fortress.
