The military operation of black-headed stink ants to plunder the sub-nest of pavement ants has come to an end, and both sides have withdrawn separately.
In this battle, both sides suffered very little troop losses. The pavement ants lost two to three hundred warriors. The corpses of these warriors, as well as aphids, honeydew, and prey near their secondary nests, all became trophies for the black-headed ants.
The black-headed stink ants only paid the loss of more than a hundred soldiers, which was obviously a big advantage.
The black-headed stink ant successfully achieved its strategic goal and obtained a large amount of valuable food.
However, in the long run, it will take time to verify whether the black-headed sour ants' risky move to provoke the regional hegemon will trigger retaliation from the pavement ant barbarian army, or even lead to the annihilation of the entire colony.
For the protagonist, there are also gains after this battle.
On the one hand, he understood the tactics of the Black-headed Sour Ant Army. If they encounter them on the battlefield in the future, the God Envoy King Army can also target them to avoid being in a hurry due to insufficient intelligence in the first encounter. The Divine Envoy King's legion suffered this loss before when they first fought against the Scythe Hunter Ants.
In addition, the frequent wars between Japanese black ants, black-headed sour ants and pavement ants also make the protagonist aware of a weakness of the pavement ant barbarians - the complicated diplomatic situation around their territory.
According to the protagonist's understanding, the territory of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom is surrounded by some natural terrain barriers. The indigenous ants living outside the territory are generally not strong and cannot threaten the Big-headed Ant Kingdom. Only then was the Big-headed Ant Kingdom able to concentrate all its efforts on fighting for hegemony with the paving ant barbarians.
Although the pavement ant barbarians have a vast territory and numerous ant colonies, frequent wars between the indigenous ant tribes and the pavement ants were observed only in the eastern border area that the protagonist detected. This is certainly not an accidental phenomenon. Especially in this year's poor harvest, this conflict will only intensify under the pressure of food scarcity.
Moreover, local indigenous ants, such as black-headed ants, have large colonies, like to wander around, and have unique tactics, which will put a lot of defensive pressure on the pavement ant barbarians.
As long as the Pavement Ant Barbarians are in unrest, it will involve a large amount of their troops and resources, creating opportunities for the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army and the Divine Envoy King Army on the southern front.
——I am the dividing line——
After watching the battle between black-headed stinky ants and pavement ants, the protagonist leads the reconnaissance team to move forward.
Until the sun went down, they passed several secondary nests of pavement ants and observed two small battlefields between pavement ants and Japanese black brown ants.
Before the sun went down, the scout team found a suitable place to spend the night.
This location is located near a bee nest. It is a smaller natural tree hole, perhaps dug out by beetles, and the space inside is relatively large.
The bees showed no ill will toward the strange combination of flies and ants that approached, and the scout team settled in with peace of mind. The bees nearby acted as bodyguards and decoys, so the scouts slept peacefully that night.
The next day, the reconnaissance team continued on the road. They had been setting off for more than two days and were about to carry more than half of the food they carried.
In order to ensure the food supply on the way back, they had to go forward for at most two days and one night before turning back.
The territory of the Pavement Ant Barbarians is far larger than the protagonist had previously expected. At least in the territory of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, this period of time is enough for the protagonist to fly back and forth in a straight line.
The territory boundary of the Pavement Ant Barbarians finally turned a corner, from roughly north to roughly west.
The protagonist notices that there are rolling mountains not far to the north.
This is a real mountain, not comparable to the rolling hills south of "Dongyang City".
The sun is good today and there are no clouds at all. The protagonist can see the towering mountains reaching into the sky. The lower part of the mountain has woods extending to the foot of the mountain, but the upper part of the mountain has only stones and sparse grassland.
These mountains are so high that no insects seem to be able to fly over them.
The protagonist estimates that at least the flying knights' mounts cannot fly over these mountains. If you want to cross the past, you can only wind your way through the valley roads in the mountains.
The boundary of the Pavement Ant Barbarians is the dense forest extending from the foot of these mountains, mostly composed of drought-tolerant trees such as pine and birch.
Along the way, in addition to the dotted sub-nests of pavement ants, the protagonist also observed a special nest.
This nest is large in scale and is located on a natural hill. In terms of size and shape, it is very similar to the main nest of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom.
This made the protagonist very curious and stayed over the lair for a while.
By estimating the number of ants near this nest, the protagonist believes that the number of ant colonies in this pavement ant nest has exceeded 100,000, which is much larger than other sub-nests.
Could this be the main nest of the pavement ant barbarians?
The protagonist thought for a while and then rejected the idea.
Through the interrogation of the captured pavement ant queen "Black Pearl", the protagonist roughly knows that the main nest of the pavement ant barbarians is not far from the river and cannot be located so far north inland.
But this lair is so unique that the protagonist can only guess that it may be a lair similar to a regional capital or a companion capital.
After all, the territory of the Pavement Ant Barbarians is too large. Unlike the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, which only needs one main nest to control the whole country, it will inevitably need some nests as regional centers.
The protagonist decides to name this type of nest a branch nest.
In addition to the large scale of this branch nest, what worries the protagonist even more is that the same plant grows densely on the land near the branch nest.
This is a plant with beautiful purple flowers that would not attract special attention if seen alone in the wild.
However, in the wild, various plants should grow intertwined with each other. Unless they are extremely dominant in competition, there will not be only one kind of plant in an area.
But now, this purple flower occupies hundreds of square meters of land near the branch nest, with few other plants in between. Moreover, if placed at this distance and position in other sub-nests, the worker ants of pavement ants will clear away all vegetation to avoid affecting the heating and lighting of the nest.
This scene reminds the protagonist of farmland! Do pavement ants also have agriculture? You know, pavement ants don't even know how to use fire!
The protagonist lowers his height and begins to search for clues.
Soon, he observed that in the sea of purple flowers, some pavement ant workers, who looked like farmers, were uprooting other plants, but did not touch the purple flowers at all.
This does not mean that the pavement ants are farming and weeding. It may be that the purple flower plant reproduces rapidly, but the pavement ants are unwilling to touch it for some reason.
Judging from the distribution of purple flowers, it still follows a natural pattern, without the uniformity of farmland.
So why do pavement ants keep this purple flower near their branch nests? Was it intentional or unintentional?
