Previously, under forced circumstances, a large proportion of the food for the Big-headed Ant Kingdom's northern expedition came from the corpses of both the enemy and ourselves.
Even ants know that eating the corpses of their companions can easily lead to disease, especially rotting corpses. Therefore, when conditions permit, they will put the corpses in the sun to dry as much as possible to reduce the occurrence of decay, which can minimize the chance of disease outbreaks.
And once the fighting became intense, like the fierce battle that took place at "Target D" for several weeks, the defenders had to deal with the enemy's attacks every day during the day, and there was no time to dry the corpses.
But the defenders themselves were still rapidly consuming the stored food. At this time, they could only throw the "fresh" corpses directly into the granary.
The dark and constant-temperature underground granary is an ideal living environment for many pathogens. A large number of fresh corpses provide nutrients, so the epidemic begins to break out. The disease first infected the worker ants guarding the granary, and then quickly spread to all big-headed ants.
This epidemic came very quickly. Although ants have evolved good resistance in nature, not many ants died directly from this unknown epidemic that has broken out in the past, but many ants will die from the disease within a certain period of time. Action and combat effectiveness.
This sudden epidemic greatly weakened the combat effectiveness of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and was the main culprit that caused them to lose many territories and strongholds faster than the protagonist expected.
Fortunately, this disease treats big-headed ants and pavement ants equally. Although the pavement ants attacking one party do not need to feed on the corpses of both parties, in the fierce hand-to-hand combat, some soldiers were infected and then brought the disease back to their own nests.
The diet of pavement ants is healthier, and they like to bask in the sun every day to replenish calories. Therefore, the disease outbreak in the pavement ant colony is not as severe as in the big-headed ant colony, but it still affects them to a greater or lesser extent. At least every time the pavement ant barbarian army moved to pursue the Northern Expeditionary Army, they had to leave thousands of worker ants in poor health behind until they recovered from illness before they could pursue the large army.
Although the big-headed ants did not know why the disease broke out, the ordinary worker ants and soldier ants did not have much emotional fluctuations as a result. But the relatively smarter male ants cherish their own lives more. Based on primitive and simple religious theories, they believe that the disease is a punishment from God for eating the corpses of their own species.
Therefore, King Public Security and General A kept sending messengers to the rear, hoping that the main nest "Qingqiu City" could send food so that the troops could avoid feeding on the corpses that had a lot of decay and mold.
However, the situation of "Qingqiu City" is not good now, and the food reserves are only enough to survive this long winter. The continuous defeat and retreat of the Northern Expeditionary Army also disappointed the King's Council. They felt that they were unable to expand their territory on the north bank of the river. Their support and enthusiasm for the Northern Expeditionary Army were also declining, and no new support was sent.
Because of this, the batch of food sent by the protagonist, even though the quantity is a drop in the bucket compared to the still huge size of the Northern Expeditionary Army, is still precious. This batch of food was kept by the male ants for their own use. After all, it was a gift from the Envoy King who represented God.
——I am the dividing line——
The offensive and defensive battle for "Target A" begins two days later.
The Pavement Ant Barbarian Army had arrived across the stream the day before, and their scouts quickly discovered that it was easy to defend but difficult to attack. Therefore, the commander of the pavement ants did not use the "Target B" sub-nest, which was only half a day away, as a base. Instead, he built a new base on a high ground on the other side of the stream.
While the base was being built, elite pavement ant scouts also appeared everywhere, looking for ways to attack.
They soon discovered that they had no choice but to attack from the rotten wooden bridge that crossed the stream. There is no passable path from the lower reaches of the stream to the mouth of the river, and it takes a day's walk upstream to find a new bridge across the river.
The leader of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army was unwilling to abandon the half-built base and instead led the large army to take a detour and cross the stream.
Therefore, the day after the construction of the base was completed, the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army launched an attack through the Kuchiki Bridge.
The Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom has long been ready and has built a branch nest at the bridgehead. The trunk of the naturally fallen tree on the rotten wood bridge was only as wide as the mouth of a bowl, and its ability to pass through was limited. Therefore, the Big-headed Ant Kingdom's army successfully contained the offensive of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army.
The next day, the Paidao Ant Barbarian Army returned in defeat.
On the third day, the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army launched an attack as soon as it was lighted up. Although the pavement ant warriors seemed a little stiff because they had no time to absorb the heat of the sun, the big-headed ants that had spent a night underground and were less tolerant to the cold were even slower than them.
Therefore, the pavement ant barbarian army used this surprise attack to successfully rush across the rotten wood bridge and advance the battlefield to the other side of the stream.
However, as the sun rose, the Big-headed Ant Kingdom army, which had regained its strength, counterattacked with all its strength, and the passing ability of the rotten wood bridge finally restricted the battlefield delivery of the Pavement Ant Army. As the bridgehead was cut off by the Big-headed Ant Kingdom's army, which was attacking in a two-wing pincer attack, the pavement ant army was driven back again, and the soldiers remaining on the other side were quickly wiped out.
On the fourth day, the pavement ants collected dead branches and leaves everywhere in an attempt to build a pontoon bridge, but the rapid stream quickly gave up their idea.
The two sides continued to fight around the deadwood bridge for four or five days.
Finally one morning, the army of the big-headed ant kingdom, which was waiting in full formation, did not wait to pave the way for a new wave of ant army offensive.
The cautious King of Public Security sent out a large number of scouts. These scouts searched up and down the stream bank, but also found no trace of the enemy.
Afterwards, a scout team carefully crossed the rotten wooden bridge and groped their way to the new starting base of the Pavement Ant Army.
In the base, the Big-headed Ant scouts discovered some Pavement Ant warriors left behind. These warriors were obviously suffering from diseases and injuries.
The scouts who fled back reported the news to the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and then two legions were dispatched to attack and eliminate the small number of Pavement Ant remnants in the base.
At this time, the Northern Expeditionary Army finally confirmed that the enemy had retreated. Although the enemy's retreat was somewhat inexplicable, the Northern Expeditionary Army could breathe a sigh of relief.
The soldiers of the Northern Expedition turned into farmers and hunters at this moment, taking advantage of the absence of enemies and the warm sunshine of the last few days before winter to collect food everywhere.
There were many corpses of insects that died before winter, as well as many newly fallen grass seeds and fruits in the fields. After a few days, the Northern Expeditionary Army finally collected enough food for the winter and abandoned a large number of rotten corpses in the granary.
However, no one could have predicted the implication behind the unusual withdrawal of the pavement ants!
