It is no easy task to get a small army of pavement ants to a destination several days away in winter. It is not even easier than humans climbing Mount Everest or exploring the polar regions.
Even pavement ants that can move outdoors in winter under certain conditions must make full use of the sun's energy to move during the day when the weather is good. Once it encounters cloudy and snowy days without the sun, or terrain where the sun is blocked, or it is night, those unlucky pavement ants who fail to return to their underground nests or to the sun in time will soon face death.
But the protagonist is not just a whim. He has been weighing it for a long time and feels that he must make this decision.
First of all, the current solar term is still late autumn in previous years. Although winter comes early, the temperature has risen. It can stay above freezing during the day and the temperature at night is not too low. From a climate perspective, it is quite suitable.
There is no snow on the surface now, which will not affect the movement of the pavement ants. Once the real cold wave and snowfall come, it will be difficult to send teams to the north.
Secondly, the pavement ants themselves have certain capabilities for winter outdoor activities, and the protagonist now has the conditions to provide them with some equipment to make up for their disadvantages.
For example, cold-weather clothing can significantly extend the time that pavement ants can be active in a sunless environment. The fire container used by the protagonist when returning from the main nest-the nut shell allows the expedition team to bring fire, and the fire contained in the nut shell can be carried by four ants, which can provide additional warmth.
The most important thing, and the reason why the protagonist sends out this expedition team at all costs, is that the protagonist urgently needs to know the current situation on the north bank of the river.
The bizarre retreat of the Pavement Ant barbarian army at the end of autumn has always made the protagonist uneasy, as if some threat beyond his plan is emerging. The protagonist speculates whether the pavement ants are preparing to launch a general attack on "Target A" in winter, when they have more advantages, in order to completely eliminate the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom and prevent the Northern Expeditionary Army from continuously retreating and resisting.
If this is the case, then "Target A" is already in a tough fight, and once "Target A" falls, it will be difficult for the weak "bridgehead" to block the offensive of the paving ant barbarian army. Even "Linshui City" is in danger.
Once this situation occurs, the protagonist must adjust the expansion plan after the next spring and fall into passivity.
Now, what the protagonist desires most is information. The fast flying knights can no longer take off, and the big-headed ants cannot move around in the wild. The protagonist's only hope is these pavement ants.
There is another thought deep in the protagonist's heart that is difficult to express. That is, even if hundreds of paving ants are sacrificed, the protagonist will not hesitate as long as he can obtain information.
After all, the pavement ants are just a tool in the protagonist's hands. They are a tool that can check and balance the power of the big-headed ants, and they are also a tool that can be sacrificed at any time.
In addition to their limited ability to move outdoors in winter and their amazing reproductive capacity, pavement ants are mediocre in terms of technology and military, and do not have much value. They are not as important as the hunter ants in the protagonist's heart.
However, there are still some difficulties that need to be solved when sending the team north.
The most important thing is the difficulty of staying overnight.
Along the way north, there are auxiliary nests of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom. Logically speaking, the team going north can find a warm auxiliary nest to spend the night before sunset every day. Then set off again the next day.
But this is just a beautiful wish, because there are various variables, and the protagonist does not intend to arrange it this way.
The pavement ants under the protagonist are very different from the big-headed ants in appearance. Even the dullest ants can tell the difference between them with the naked eye at close range.
Although ants, especially the worker ants, still rely on smell to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. Even though these pavement ants look like their old enemies, they have the aura of the Divine Envoy King's army, and logically they will not be troubled by the big-headed ants along the way.
However, the odor of ants mainly comes from the secretion of their own glands and contamination from the external environment. If the team going north operates in the cold and windy wilderness for a long time, the odor information on the body surface will be easily blown away, and because the body temperature is lower than the normal season, the secretion of its glands will also be affected. The protagonist is afraid that due to their weak smell and appearance, these pavement ants will be attacked by unidentified big-headed ants in their nests along the way.
Even if the smell is acceptable, it would still be troublesome if it is accidentally seen by male ants in the secondary nest. Male ants are different from worker ants. They have higher IQs and are more suspicious. Workers may not doubt these pavement ants that have the same odor but different appearance, but the male ants may be cautious and treat these pavement ants Kill. Anyway, if you kill the wrong one, dozens of worker ants will die. The male ants will never care about this sacrifice. But killing the right person is a correct decision and is beneficial to the interests of the kingdom.
The protagonist currently has no intention of revealing to the ruler of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom that he has a pavement ant force under his command, which would cause unnecessary trouble.
For this reason, even if the team heading north reaches "Target A", they will only enter through the entrance and exit for a brief test to see if the residents inside are still garrisoned by Big-headed Ants, and then return without any further contact with them.
Since you can't spend the night in each sub-nest, you can only camp on the spot before dusk. The most suitable one is to dig a temporary camp deep enough on the ground. The deeper it is, the better its thermal insulation.
However, the soil that is frozen and hardened in winter is difficult to excavate. The team going north can spend at most half a day building the camp. Most of the time they have to travel, so naturally they cannot dig too deep a cave. At this time, a fire is needed to increase the temperature of the temporary camp.
Every night, in the temporary camp, the pavement ants can build a fire with the fuel collected when building their nest, light it with kindling, and rely on the bonfire to spend the long night.
Calculating this, due to the need to set up temporary camps every day and the shorter days in winter, the traveling speed of the northbound team will be much lower than the normal speed in other seasons.
Even if the temporary camp that had been built on the way back could be used, it would probably take half a month to go back and forth between "Dongyang City" and "Target A".
This is assuming that everything goes well. If there is a sudden snowstorm or cold wave, even if the northbound team can hide in a temporary camp in time, it will be extremely difficult to survive without food and fuel.
Even if it's just a light snowfall, it will greatly increase the team's difficulties - the snow will be more difficult to travel, and the snow particles sticking to the body will quickly take away precious heat...
But the protagonist is determined. If one team is destroyed, he will send another one. The inexplicable sense of threat in the protagonist's heart urges him to understand the current situation on the north bank of the river at all costs!
