While the fierce battle was going on on the north bank of the river, the protagonist was also making preparations intensively, ready to intervene in the battle in Hebei at any time.
The main nest of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom has learned about the battle situation from the messenger sent back by the Northern Expeditionary Army. The Northern Expeditionary Army described the current situation as very serious and repeatedly urged for reinforcements and new supplies.
However, in order to gather a hundred legions of the Northern Expeditionary Army and their supplies, the main nest has squeezed all parts of the country to the limit. Each sub-nest is now in a state of emptiness. Now it is absolutely difficult for the main nest to gather a new army in the short term. The army can't scrape together much usable supplies.
Therefore, at the suggestion of some kings with ulterior motives, the king's meeting in the main nest ordered the protagonist to lead his army north to support, and at the same time provide a large amount of food.
But the protagonist had already expected it. He immediately sent a messenger to the main nest, claiming that his legion had suffered heavy losses in the south and was not ready to go north, and there was no food to provide.
He pointed out that due to the extreme lack of salt in his army (in fact, due to the destruction of production, the entire Big-headed Ant Kingdom is more or less lacking of salt), even the queen ants are not laying eggs very much, and they cannot replenish the battle losses. . As for the worker ants who eat light food, their labor efficiency has also been greatly reduced, and now food is very tight.
Only by completely solving the salt problem can the protagonist find a way to support Hebei.
Taking this opportunity, the protagonist complained and asked to send his own people to "Salt City" to mine salt.
The protagonist's move is to completely control the salt mine resources of "Yan City". The protagonist had this idea before, but because the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army launched the first siege of the "Bridgehead", the protagonist was eager to go north and temporarily shelved the plan.
Now that the main nest wants something from him, the protagonist naturally uses this intention as a bargaining chip.
The main nest did not realize the depth of the protagonist's intentions, and was eager to rescue the enemy Bei Zhengjun who was in trouble. The king was so ill that he sought medical treatment and quickly agreed to the protagonist's request.
After receiving the authorization from the main nest, the protagonist immediately started to form a team and prepared to go to "Salt City".
——I am the dividing line——
In addition to intending to occupy the salt mine, the protagonist is also worrying about another problem to be solved these days - the problem of the oldest king and the "real main nest".
Before the battle of conquest in the southern hills, "Dongyang City" once received a messenger from the oldest king.
After the oldest king mysteriously disappeared from the main nest, a series of suspicions and fights occurred among the kings surrounding this incident. In the end, the senior brother temporarily took over the position of the oldest king.
But the Lao Wang himself secretly went to the southern part of the kingdom with a few ant queens and followers to establish the "real main nest".
That time, the messenger brought the Lao Wang's greetings to the protagonist, and showed that they are the orthodox ones of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, and have gained the allegiance of some nearby sub-nests, establishing a country within the Kingdom within the Big-headed Ant Kingdom.
This country within a country seems to be unknown to the King's Council in the main nest at present. It may be because there is cover from the oldest king's party in various parts of the kingdom, including in the main nest.
Lao Wang also said that they are now short of food and hope that the protagonist can provide assistance. He also left an address, which is a sub-nest on the border of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, hoping that the protagonist can provide a batch of food here.
The protagonist speculates that this secondary nest may be the "real main nest" mentioned by the oldest king, or it may be a secondary nest that has taken refuge with the oldest king.
As for why the oldest king asked him for help, the protagonist can only say that either his name as the God Envoy King made the other party think that he was in their group, or "Dongyang City" was too wealthy and was taken into consideration. Or maybe both.
This incident made the protagonist feel that he was involved in a huge conspiracy, which was very unpleasant.
In the end, the oldest king even asked the protagonist to obey the instructions of the "real main nest" and fight together against the current main nest and king meeting of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom.
It was from this request that the protagonist suddenly realized - he thought of the secret inheritance of the queen ant within the paving ant barbarian tribe.
The protagonist guesses that Lao Wang and the others believe in this kind of inheritance system where the queen is respected.
This inheritance believes that the entire ant world was originally ruled by the queen ant, and the queen was the orthodox ruler, and the society at that time was in order.
The current male ant rulers are just a group of thieves who have stolen power, and their rule is not recognized by the queen's secret inheritance. Moreover, the secret inheritance of the queen ant believes that the evil male ants prevent the young female ants from receiving education in order to restrict the queen and female ants.
But the ant queens still secretly pass on their knowledge and experience from generation to generation, dreaming of restoring the tradition of queen ant governance. They can even gain the allegiance of some male ants and worker ants.
As a form of resistance, the queen's secret inheritance will encourage young female ants to find opportunities to escape and develop their own colonies after participating in the wedding flight ceremony - in accordance with ancient traditions, establishing a colony ruled by the queen. And it is said that there are already successful precedents.
It seems that in the big-headed ant kingdom, the secret inheritance power of the queen ant is still very powerful. Even the oldest king with a high status in the king's meeting is one of them.
Moreover, unlike the queen successors in the Paved Ant Kingdom who tried to influence young female ants and escaped from their bonds through passive means of escaping after marriage, the queen successors in the Big-headed Ant Kingdom used more drastic methods and simply fled en masse.
The inheritors of this group of big-headed ant kingdoms should be a small group centered on some queen ants, with some worker ants, soldier ants and even male ants loyal to them.
This small group is quite cohesive and has not revealed its existence for so many years. The Big-headed Ant Kingdom's Council of Kings may not know anything about this force under their noses.
The small group of queen ant successors has been cautiously and slowly gathering strength along with the long history of the big-headed ant kingdom. Perhaps they have also adopted the same method that paved the way for the ant kingdom before, hoping that young female ants will leave the group after marriage and flight. To build an ideal country.
However, there are always failed new queens who are forced to return to the main nest. They are the inheritors from generation to generation.
Now, because the oldest king of this generation has become a supporter of the queen's secret inheritance, the queens are finally able to escape from the prison of the main nest.
Then, everything happened next: establishing the "real main nest", coming to seek assistance due to food pressure, and exposing its own existence.
Based on interest considerations, the protagonist did not want to get in touch with the Lao Wang faction at that time to avoid deteriorating the relationship with the main nest after the Dongchuang incident.
So he ordered the messenger to be killed and sent flying knights to dump the messenger's body near the territory of the Lao Wang faction.
In this way, Lao Wang will think that the messenger failed to arrive at "Dongyang City" due to an accident, and the protagonist will be able to gain some buffer time.
