In midsummer, the temperature is getting hotter and hotter like this war situation.
There was a slight drizzle in the early morning the day before yesterday, but the earth brought a long-lost coolness. But since yesterday, the sky has become unusually blue, and you can even see the mountains in the north clearly. A few scattered clouds dotted the scene, and soon they were escorted by the wind all the way south.
The sun completely dominates this season, scorching the air and the earth, and the scenery a little further away is twisting and trance-like in the air.
Apart from plants, the only other life that seems to like this season is cicadas, which chirp tirelessly on the tree trunks. Although the other insects are also cold-blooded animals, they do not dare to be active in the sun for too long in this kind of weather, otherwise they will lose precious water.
For many insects, water is a very precious resource. If they are not lucky enough to find a water source (which is relatively scarce in the wild), they can only get a little precious water from food, and naturally cannot squander it in the sun. .
Therefore, most insects choose to come out in the early morning or around dusk, and hide in the shade of trees at other times. The shade of trees is a haven for insects in hot summer. The temperature here is very different from the ground where the sun shines directly, like a paradise in a scorching hell.
Maybe only the mysterious ants don't care about the temperature above 35 degrees and the surface temperature close to 50 degrees. They are still marching under the bright sun, attacking, attacking, and attacking non-stop.
However, their opponents, the pavement ants, do not have the courage and dare not go to the wild to fight together during this season, so they can only stay trapped in their nests.
This is a nest located at the root of a tree. The tree is a lush purple-leafed plum tree, about several decades old. The trunks are hugged together, and the purple leaves hang in the air like clouds, bringing a large amount of shadow to the surface of the nest. .
There are also a large number of attractive purple-red fruits hanging between the branches, and there are also many fallen fruits on the ground, but the ants under the tree are dismissive of them - most of the fruits of this purple-leaf plum tree are It is sour, even if it is fully ripe, the taste is only slightly sweet and slightly sour. Only a few insects will eat this fruit, but ants are obviously not among them.
But the ants will not leave this big tree that cannot provide fruits, because their home is here.
At the root of the purple-leaf plum tree, there are entrances and exits to dozens of ant nests in a dense circle. This nest belongs to the Barbarian Kingdom of Pavement Ants. If someone from the same tribe visits, the dominant male ants here will proudly tell the visitors that this nest is full of ants. Has hundreds of years of history.
This sub-nest indeed has a long history. It is a territory that was developed by the Paving Ant Barbarian Kingdom before it became the overlord on the north bank of the river.
The territory surrounding the sub-nest is densely covered with edible fruit trees, including purple-leafed plums, small peach trees, peach trees, jujube trees, etc. The rich products also make there a lot of insects here. The numerous fruits and insect prey are enough to support a large sub-nest. nest.
This nest has indeed developed into a large secondary nest with tens of thousands of ant colonies over hundreds of years. Every day, there is an endless stream of transport teams transporting the harvested food to the main nest, which is more than a day's journey away.
Because it has not encountered war for a long time, for the convenience of transportation and foraging, this secondary nest does not have only one entrance and exit like the nest of the big-headed ant kingdom, but is densely packed with dozens of entrances and exits surrounding the tree trunk, like a circle of necklaces. Holding the neck.
But such a structure will also bring great trouble to the pavement ants in the upcoming battle.
As the mysterious ant army continues to advance, the alarm from the front line becomes more and more urgent, and this secondary nest will soon become a battlefield.
A king from the main nest of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom led a legion to come here to take charge.
A mere legion can hardly play a decent role in this war, especially in a war with a powerful enemy. The country has lost hundreds of legions. And compared with the mission that this great king shoulders, this small amount of troops is not worth mentioning.
This king from the southern border of the country, although his hometown has fallen into the hands of the despicable Big-headed Ant clan, he once fought under another king with outstanding achievements and learned the essence of his teacher's tactics.
Thanks to this, the main nest gave him the task of building a defense line in this [Purple Leaf Li City], and gave him the power to recruit all resources in this area.
The Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom has invested hundreds of thousands of troops in the main nest battlefield, but now it seems that they are still unable to resist the offensive of the powerful enemy.
In order to completely defeat the enemy, the ruling male ants of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom wanted to imitate last year's successful experience and assemble a second wave of armies to jump into battle on the main nest battlefield and completely defeat the enemy in front of them.
For this reason, the pavement ants had to take defensive positions in the other three battlefields and concentrate all their strength and resources on the main nest.
Such a large-scale troop build-up takes time, and the battle situation on the frontal battlefield has gone from bad to worse. It is obviously difficult to provide enough time for the main troop build-up like last year.
In this context, the king from the south, let's call him "Suzaku", was ordered to come to [Purple Leaf Licheng] in the face of danger and was ordered to build a final line of defense.
Once this place is lost, the main nest will be exposed to the enemy's troops, and the enemy will attack the city in less than two days.
Although the pavement ant army finally relied on the strong defenses of the main nest to repel the enemy last year, the main nest had completed the integration of all its forces at that time, but now it has not achieved its goal.
In order to protect the main nest, Suzaku must stay here for a week.
For Suzaku, who currently only has one legion at hand, this is an almost impossible task.
But fortunately, he has the power to mobilize all the resources of several nearby sub-nests.
[Purple Leaf Licheng] and several nearby auxiliary nests have a total of more than 100,000 ant colonies. This is one of the most fertile areas in the entire country. In the past, it provided more than 10% of the main nest's food.
Now, as the war situation worsens, a large number of soldiers are thrown into the front line and die quickly. Even if the main nest is gathering troops of an unprecedented scale, the consumption of food is not as urgent as usual.
[Purple Leaf Licheng] The pressure to provide food to the main nest has been reduced, and Suzaku dares to use the ant holes and food here to complete the arduous task.
Under Suzaku's order, ants and grain stores in nearby areas were gathering at [Purple Leaf Licheng]. While Suzaku was hoarding grain, he was reorganizing his troops and building a large number of new legions.
It is naturally difficult to increase the combat effectiveness of these new legions quickly, but their huge numbers are the greatest use of these cannon fodder legions.
An offensive and defensive battle surrounding [Purple Leaf Licheng] will soon become the focus of the battle on the north bank of the river.
