In this investigation, there are two main things that the protagonist needs to understand. One is the location and terrain information of the hive, and the other is the size of the hive and the number of bees.
In the past, the protagonist could safely leave these tasks to Tingying. Under his words and deeds, Tingying was already a master and could complete the work well. Even if there are still difficulties, after the protagonist receives the targeted information package brought back by Flying Eagle, it can be analyzed afterwards.
But the whereabouts of Flying Eagle are now unknown, and the protagonist has already acquiesced that he has encountered misfortune and will never come back.
Centipede, who is currently leading the flying knights, obviously does not have the ability of Flying Eagle, and the other flying knights are not much better. Therefore, this time the protagonist can only go into battle in person, teach by words and deeds just like he did with Flying Eagle, and strive to get the new commander to take over as soon as possible.
It is relatively easy to detect the location and terrain of the hive. The flying knights take advantage of the fly's flexibility and small turning radius, as well as the male ants' vision, to always avoid the coming and going of worker bees and circle around the tree where the hive is located. The hole flew and all the information was recorded in the information package.
Although it is difficult to peek into the hive through the tree hole, and only the dense spleens are visible, from the outside, this hive can be said to be easy to defend and difficult to attack.
The tree hole where the hive is located is about six meters high in mid-air. To the ants, it is equivalent to humans facing an aerial fortress six hundred meters above sea level.
The bark of the poplar tree is relatively smooth and has no cracks, making it not suitable for climbing. On windy days, it is difficult for the ants to climb to this height against the wind.
Once the ant warrior is blown away by the wind high on the tree trunk, although the ant warrior will not be thrown to death, it is likely to be carried very far away and fall outside the territory of the big-headed ant kingdom, with no possibility of returning to the nest.
The protagonist calculates that if he attacks head-on, he must choose a sunny and windy day. Otherwise, bad weather will be the hive's best ally, which can cause a large number of non-combat casualties in the ant army.
The tree hole where the hive is located has a large opening. If this is an ant nest, then an entrance and exit of this size would be a nightmare for the defenders. There is not much difference between holding on to this entrance and exit and fighting in the open field.
However, bees are much larger than big-headed ants. If this open entrance becomes a battlefield, the bee defenders can take advantage of their size.
As an insect that is well known to both women and children, the protagonist still knows the weapons and fighting methods of bees.
Beware of the bee's jaws first.
The mouthparts of bees are chewing and sucking mouthparts with complex structure. In addition to the large jaws being used for chewing or shaping wax, the middle tongue, outer leaves of the lower jaw and the lower lip must be merged to form a complex food tube for sucking nectar, which can be separated when not in use.
Although the jaws of bees are not often used for combat, especially against larger targets, the size of the jaws determines that it is a dangerous weapon for ants, and can easily kill a soldier ant. Bite into two pieces.
Followed by bee stings and bee venom.
The bee sting is the stinger of the bee and is the self-defense organ of the bee. When the bee feels that its life is threatened by other organisms, it will sting. At the same time as the sting, the bee will inject a liquid from the sting. The chemical components contained in it will produce local or systemic reactions to the organisms stung by the needle. The liquid produced by the bee sting is called bee sting liquid, also known as bee venom.
To deal with large animals, bees mainly rely on bee venom to drive away enemies. This bee venom can even kill humans who are stung, which shows how powerful it is.
However, the protagonist is now an ant, and he feels that bee stings and bee venom are not a big threat to the ant warriors. After all, the ants are too small, and it is difficult for the bees to stay on the ant's back and accurately insert the sting needles.
Even if an ant is unfortunately stung, bee venom is not needed. The size of the bee sting alone is enough to tear the ant's body apart.
Moreover, the stinger of a bee is a disposable weapon. After being stung, it will fall off along with the internal organs. The bee that has lost its stinger will also die. Bees rarely use this weapon unless absolutely necessary.
The third weapon, or tactic, of bees is the swarm heating tactic.
The natural enemies of bees are wasps or wasps. Carnivorous wasps or wasps often attack beehives and plunder bees and young bees for food.
Unfortunately, all the weapons bees have evolved are ineffective against these predators: their jaws can't penetrate the exoskeleton, and neither can their stingers. But wasps and wasps can kill dozens or hundreds of bees in a short period of time.
At this time, the grouped bees will use special tricks.
The extreme temperature that bees can physiologically withstand is higher than that of wasps or wasps. They will form a group together to tightly surround the intruders, and flap their wings to accelerate the temperature rise.
Although the hornets or hornets in the middle were still killing people and trying to break out of the encirclement, a steady stream of bees still rushed forward without fear of death.
These bees vibrate their wings crazily, emitting a large amount of heat, and soon the surrounding temperature rises very high. The wasps or wasps surrounded in the middle are even more in the center of the high temperature, and soon their limbs will convulse in shock or die. .
The cautious bees would still surround him for a while before throwing the enemy to the ground with his tentacles curled up. This tactic may require the sacrifice of dozens or hundreds of bees to eliminate a single invader, but since the incoming hornets or wasps are often small in number, it often works.
Among the three weapons of bees, after the protagonist analyzes it, he thinks that the first one - the bee's jaws is more troublesome, the second - the bee's sting and venom is not something to worry about, and the last heat tactic, the protagonist has not yet Know if the bees will use it on the smaller but more numerous ants.
Judging from the performance of the ants tending the fire and the copper-smelting blast furnace, the heat resistance of the ants is still acceptable. Although the average life span of the ants in these two places is relatively short, they are not likely to die suddenly due to excessive body temperature.
After understanding the weapons and tactics of bees, the protagonist makes mental plans on how to deal with these enemies who have never fought before.
Weighing the pros and cons, he first eliminated the rolling beetle army. The beetles are too large and are easily targeted by bee stings, bee venom and heat tactics, and climbing smooth and straight poplar trees is not what the beetles are good at.
As mentioned before, the protagonist finally decides to send the newly formed legion into the war.
Next, the protagonist needs to estimate the size of the bee colony in the bee hive before deciding how many troops to send to the battle.
After all, the diameter of a poplar tree is only that thick, and the hive entrance is only that big. Excessive troops will not bring additional benefits, but will have diminishing marginal effects.
But estimating the size of a bee colony is not easy.
