To be honest, the tree branch platform under the honeycomb tree hole is not a particularly suitable combustion chamber.
The place here is too narrow and the surrounding area is too open.
If the place is too narrow, too much fuel and smoke-generating materials cannot be piled up, and the combustion cannot be sustained for a long time; if the surrounding area is open, the direction of the smoke cannot be controlled, and it is difficult to use the smoke efficiently.
When fighting parasitic ants before, the Angel King's army dug a combustion chamber underground and used the hollow stems of thorngrass as pipes, thereby guiding almost all the smoke into the parasitic ant's nest. , worked wonders.
But this set obviously cannot be used to deal with beehives. The height of six meters determines that the God's Envoy King Legion does not have a sufficient number of knotweeds and superb craftsmanship to make a practical ventilation pipe from the ground to the beehive.
The protagonist can only ask the ants to change their operations.
They tried their best to choose efficient fuels, such as twigs used to start fires, and charcoal simmered with these twigs. They were transported to the tree branch platform, and then carefully built a firewood pile bit by bit. Increase the duration of firepower as much as possible when the firewood pile is limited.
The ants are like crows and magpies building their nests, arranging branches or charcoal sticks in a criss-cross pattern, which can not only increase the height of the fire and prevent it from collapsing, but also ensure that there are criss-cross spaces in the middle of the fire pile for air. circulation to improve combustion efficiency.
The smoking materials are all fresh grass leaves picked that day, which are also woven into the firewood pile and covered with a layer.
According to ancient Chinese military smoking habits, they also like to add wolf dung, chili pepper, etc. into it. Wolf smoke mixed with wolf dung is used to warn people from a distance. The addition of chili peppers is purely to make the smoke more pungent and choking. But the protagonist doesn’t have that condition, so let’s add some ant droppings and mealworm droppings to try the effect.
How to induce smoke is also a troublesome matter. The open and unobstructed terrain determines that most of the smoke will not flow into the closed honeycomb tree hole, but will be blown away by the wind.
The ants' response was to use ant glue to build several pipes between the firewood piles and the hive tree holes. The inlet of the gas pipe is above the firewood pile. When the flame burns, it will be burned together. How much smoke can be introduced before complete failure can only be left to fate.
It took about two hours to build the pyre, but the hive was silent during this period. Perhaps the bees also noticed something unusual. For example, when the pipe of the thorngrass was pushed into the hole of the hive tree, there was obviously a noise inside the hive.
However, after confirming that the pipes were dead, the hive did not take any measures. Perhaps they thought it was debris blown in by the wind, and they would clear it out tomorrow morning.
But it's obviously too late, and disaster is about to hit this swarm's nest.
Mantis led his legion of big-headed ant warriors to stand ready in the lee of the tree trunks under the fire. The hunter ants did not participate in this night battle because they relied too much on their eyesight, but their valuable experience with bees has been shared with the entire legion. .
The protagonist also rides "Tempest" to sit in the legion. "Tempest", like bees, does not like to be active at night. It can almost only see a few things within a very close range.
However, "Xiao Qing II" is also inconvenient to move around at night, so the protagonist can only choose "Tempest" as a mount.
As the protagonist conveyed the "light a fire" command to the messengers around him, six soldier ants soon transported a small nut shell containing tinder to the fire.
This nut shell is similar to the shell of a pistachio nut, but is not the same species. There is a small hole in the nut shell, through which you can see the smoldering charcoal inside.
The ants held the fire in the firewood pile, and a little or two of the sparks fell under the action of gravity.
The ant responsible for igniting the fire turned around and ran away. The night breeze was like the best igniter. A burst of air flow passed by, and small sparks attached to the firewood, suddenly becoming a little brighter.
The branches collected by the ants were thin and dry, making them the best kindling materials. They quickly ignited and slowly ignited the entire pyre.
The fresh and juicy grass leaves began to curl under the high temperature, and the black smoke was so thick that it seemed to herald the black smoke brought by death.
Most of the black smoke rose crookedly into the air under the influence of the wind, and then dissipated, making the protagonist feel distressed - what a waste.
But there must be some smoke being introduced into the hive. The protagonist can see in the moonlight that there is also a plume of black smoke coming out of the tree hole of the hive. Although it is very light and thin, it shows that the gas pipe of the wormwood is working.
The location of the protagonist and the mantis tiger army was not far from the honeycomb tree hole. Soon, they felt that the tree trunk under their feet began to vibrate - this was when the bees noticed something was wrong.
The smoke has filled the hive, and the concentration is not high, just enough to wake up the bees without making them faint.
The protagonist noticed that bees in twos and threes began to crawl out of the tree hole and tried to take off.
But this move cost them their lives. The smoke in the hive was not yet strong, but at this moment there was a sea of smoke outside the tree hole. The bees that crawled out could not walk a few steps or fly a few meters before they were buried in the scorching smoke. Fall down.
Most of the bees fell under the tree, and one bee bumped into the fire. It struggled painfully and almost broke the pyre.
However, the time it could survive in the fire could only be counted in seconds. The pyre did not fall apart in the end, but the bee was already dead.
More and more bees began to fly out of the hive, then crackle and fall like rain. A very few lucky ones were not knocked out by the heat and smoke, but they only dared to fly around the poplar trees and did not dare to get close to their nests.
They could never imagine why their home turned into a sea of fire.
Attracted by the dazzling firelight and black smoke, the surviving bees did not notice the ants not far away.
The fire was burning, from slow burning at the beginning to blazing fire, and then back to simmering little by little.
The black smoke also went from thin at the beginning, to thick, and then back to thin again.
A large section of the gas pipe has been burned, and the remaining part's ability to draw smoke is even weaker, but it doesn't matter anymore.
No bees came out of the hive for a while, and the bees still in the tree hole were obviously in danger.
There are still hundreds of bees hovering in the sky outside the hive. They are probably the last survivors of this huge hive.
Among the thousands of bees that fell under the tree, there may be survivors who can wake up, but they obviously cannot make it to tonight's battle.
The protagonist sees that the time is almost up, and with a command, the ant army moves out one after another and rushes towards the honeycomb tree hole!
