If races with the same habits will face great competition during natural disasters, then Big-headed Ants and Pavement Ants have a high degree of overlap in food and territory, and are the most fiercely competitive opponents.
In terms of food, both ant races are equally omnivorous and eat both meat and vegetable food. Their main food sources are hunting insects in the wild or collecting edible plant buds, leaves, flowers and seeds. Both ants also like aphids. Or sweets such as honeydew secreted by scale insects.
It is precisely because of the highly consistent food sources that both ant races like to live in the plains. With their numerical superiority and accumulated national strength, they firmly occupy the most fertile plains on the north and south banks of the river, outpacing other countries or races. The ants rushed to a remote and barren corner outside their territory.
When it comes to the competition for territory, the Big-headed Ant Kingdom and the Pavement Ant Barbarians still have an unsolvable grudge. The Big-headed Ant Kingdom was once almost destroyed, and after the former's rise, the Pavement Ant Barbarians were limited by geographical conditions and eventually lost their vast territory on the south bank of the river.
The pavement ant barbarians try to go south every year in winter to regain their lost territory in one go. The Big-headed Ant Kingdom also wants to eliminate this enemy once and for all.
The protagonist does not know what impact this late spring cold will have on the war between the two sides that will last for hundreds or even thousands of years. Perhaps the two sides will temporarily stop fighting due to lack of food, or they may expand the scale of the war in order to compete for the few resources.
No matter how the future develops, the protagonist needs to be prepared in advance.
——I am the dividing line——
Beginning on the fifth day, the power of the late spring cold began to subside. It took a full week for the temperatures to return to normal.
During this period, all creatures in the world suffered heavy losses. But life is tenacious, and the survivors begin to work hard to grow and reproduce. Perhaps within two years, the world will return to prosperity.
But this year may be a different one, not only for ants but also for all insects.
After the temperature rose, the protagonist began to receive replies from the main nest and "Dongyang City" one after another.
These messengers survived the bad weather for a whole week in the auxiliary nests of the same race. It was not until the weather improved that they went back on the road to complete their unfinished mission.
As for the main nest, the King's Council has sorted out the results of last winter's defensive battle through contact with the deputy nests.
Along the river, three heavily fortified sub-nests ("Linshui City", the Public Security Corps Station and the Western Corps Station) were all attacked by the enemy, and only the Western Corps Station fell.
Subsequently, this enemy army that probably conquered the Western Legion station marched towards the hinterland of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, and captured two sub-nests in the south. After that, they stopped advancing because of the beginning of spring.
According to the data provided by "Linshui City" and the Public Security Corps, the total number of pavement ant barbarian troops who attacked "Linshui City" at that time was about 100,000. After they withdrew, they split into two groups. The 50,000-strong army that attacked the Public Security Corps retreated to the north bank of the river before spring. So those who attacked the Western Legion station and the other two auxiliary nests were also fifty thousand enemy troops. They are still stranded on the south bank of the river.
What needs to be fought in this year's Reconquest War is this enemy force. Considering that this enemy force has been fighting continuously, the current size of the army will be less than 50,000. However, the pavement ant barbarians will definitely place queen ants in the three lost sub-nests and provide a steady stream of soldiers. Judging from the size of the enemy's army, as long as we seize the time to prepare for the expedition, this year's war of recapture will be easier than in previous years.
After confirming that the weather has warmed up, the main nest has begun preparing for the wedding flight ceremony and preparing supplies for the expedition.
Regarding the wedding flight ceremony, the King's Conference believes that the temperature has met the requirements for wedding flight, and each deputy nest will follow tradition and send out wedding flight teams after the next rainfall. But the timing of the rains is left to chance. According to tradition, the war of recovery will only begin after the wedding ceremony is over and a large number of newly adult kings join the army.
In terms of material preparation, the main nest seems to be stretched thin this year.
Originally, the main hive stocked up a lot of supplies before winter each year, which was enough to support the entire main hive through the winter, and still had room to provide a large amount of military supplies.
However, this year, due to changes in the winter defense plan, a large amount of supplies were transported to the heavily fortified frontline sub-nest, causing the main nest warehouse to be relatively empty.
After winter, it was originally a good time to replenish supplies, but a full week of late spring cold interrupted the big-headed ants' plan to collect supplies.
Although after the late spring cold ended, a large number of corpses of frozen insects were collected into warehouses, the insect meat was of poor quality and had a short shelf life, and was not enough to supply the entire war.
Now, the main nest is working overtime to collect various supplies, and at the same time, the sub-nests that still have surplus food are asked to transport the supplies to the main nest. However, after being hit by the late spring cold, the entire kingdom was in depression, and the protagonist was not optimistic about this year's harvest.
"Dongyang City" brings good news and bad news to the protagonist.
Following the return of the messenger, there were also flying knights, and the protagonist's mount Xiaoqing II was also brought to Linshui City.
After briefly receiving the flying knight and the messenger, the protagonist began to listen to the winter information of "Dongyang City".
After the protagonist went to "Linshui City" to prepare for war, Rambo flew to take charge of "East Yang City", "Stump Fortress" and the "Southern Fortress" in the middle.
Before winter came, considering the poor ability of the two fortresses to withstand the cold, Rambo Fei followed the plan and withdrew half of the troops of "Stump Fortress" and all the garrison of "Southern Fortress" to "Dongyang City".
Throughout the winter, due to sufficient supplies and fuel, there was no abnormal attrition in "Dongyang City".
Winter passed safely, but the late spring cold also brought great losses to "Dongyang City". Wild food sources were greatly reduced, especially a batch of new aphids and scale insects that were frozen to death. This year's honeydew supply will be very tight. .
The protagonist originally planned to have "Dongyang City" transport supplies to "Linshui City" as soon as possible, but now that he heard this situation, he had to make a new plan.
According to the news conveyed by Lamborghini's messenger, the grain reserves in "Dongyang City" are enough for three places to consume for a month, but the current amount of grain collected is far from keeping up with consumption. In order to make up for the shortfall, breeding farms and farmland need to be opened as soon as possible.
If the breeding farm is put into use immediately, the first batch of eggs will be ready for sale in about half a month after hatching, which can still solve the urgent need. Farming is slower, and it will take a month or two at the earliest before the first batch of grass seeds can be harvested.
The protagonist thought for a while, and found that the current food storage in "Linshui City" was only enough for one month. According to reports from the worker ants, the amount of food collected recently could not cover the consumption. And there are no breeding farms here yet.
It seems that before the war begins, the problem of military rations must be solved first.
