For the Pavement Ant Barbarian Kingdom, sending troops from all over the country to the northern border in turns to fight against the Campoback Ants is the most important measure to maintain the combat effectiveness of the troops and the martial tradition of the race.
After all, after becoming the overlord on the north bank of the river, the Pavilion Ant Barbarian Kingdom has few enemies worthy of attention. If things go on like this, the combat effectiveness of the troops will decline rapidly due to the lack of actual combat.
Although military operations such as the southern expedition to the Big-headed Ant Kingdom every winter always fail, the war is basically conducted on the territory of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom. The homeland of the Paving Ant Barbarian Kingdom is not threatened, and the scale of the war is difficult to expand. The troops who later went south were unable to return, so it was naturally difficult to train the troops.
The tribes of Japanese black brown ants and black-headed sour ants in the east can only carry out some plundering on a small scale.
Only the Camponotus ants in the north have always been a serious problem for the Paving Ant Barbarian Kingdom.
Although the pavement ant barbarian army is able to repel the Toxoplasma ants every year, and then enters the northern stony mountainous area to sweep up in the autumn, killing tens of thousands of Toxonotus ants.
However, the next spring, the same number of Camponotus ants always come back and continue to pose a threat in the north.
The ant is huge in size, has a hard carapace, and has powerful jaws. In a duel, the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army often has to dispatch more than ten warriors at the same time to defeat a single ant.
In fact, on the battlefield, the pavement ant barbarian army usually uses a whole squad to fight against two or three bow-backed ants in order to give full play to their numerical advantage.
If it weren't for the fact that the Campoback Ants are not good at fighting in formations and often fight alone and are scarce in number, then the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army would have an even harder time dealing with it.
When Suzaku first brought his legion to the northern border, the intensive assault tactics he inherited from his teacher to deal with the big-headed ants were not very effective when facing the humpback ants.
Facing the ant warriors swarming from the front, the ant warriors can always sweep them away with their powerful jaws. On the contrary, those legions in the north that have been fighting against the ant for a long time arranged their warriors into loose formations, and the tactic of dividing and encircling them first and then attacking was more effective.
After losing 10% to 20% of the troops under Suzaku's original command, they finally gradually adapted to the enemy's tactics.
Soon, spring passed and summer arrived, and the ants returned to the mountainous areas. At this time, food was plentiful, and the ants that had consumed their excess ant colonies no longer needed to take risks and enter the plains to plunder.
The Pavement Ant barbarian army is undergoing training, and Suzaku's army has been supplemented by fresh troops coming from afar from its home base, and is once again full. After a period of joint training and hunting exercises, this unit reached its strongest state.
With the arrival of autumn, the pavement ants began to be busy storing food for the winter, while the legions stationed in the north began to move north - they were going deep into the mountains to start a counterattack.
——I am the dividing line——
Suzaku climbed out of the nest with his men and saw the sun again.
Behind him is the nest of a newly conquered indigenous Trichoderma ant tribe. The nest is hidden in the crevices of a natural weathered stone. If it weren't for the scouts keeping a close watch on the return ants, they might still be there. It's really hard to find out that there is a small tribe hidden here.
After confirming that the tribe was not large in size, Suzaku took his own legion to independently undertake the offensive task.
This time, the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army is the attacker and has the initiative on the battlefield. It is difficult for the passively defensive ants to form a coalition of thousands as they did when they descended from the mountains to plunder in the spring. Each tribe was often defeated separately.
Based on his previous combat experience, Suzaku sent out a small number of scouts to conduct a tentative attack, and soon led these large, simple-minded ants out of the nest with well-developed limbs.
After introducing dozens of ant warriors from this tribe into the encirclement and killing them, Suzaku led the legion deep into the nest and killed the old, weak, sick and female ants left behind. This small tribe of ant Completely wiped from the world.
For Suzaku, this was just part of a routine battle. Almost every day he and his legion would eliminate one or two such tribes.
But these tribes of indigenous ant species are like weeds on the mountains. No matter how barren the land is, they can always continue to sprout and grow next spring.
Suzaku knew that the male ants in his country had been studying this enemy for a long time, and concluded that this stony mountainous area was too vast, and the pavement ant army could only set foot on a small piece of land on the edge of the mountainous area.
And deep in the mountains, there are countless such indigenous tribes of ant. Even if the pavement ant army wipes out all the tribes of ant near the border, it won't be long before new tribes will migrate here.
But if the pavement ant kingdom takes no action, the pressure on defenses will increase again the following spring.
The army of pavement ants carries out endless and inevitable tasks year after year, just like they march south every year, in vain and stubbornly.
——I am the dividing line——
Unknowingly, it had been more than a month since Suzaku and his legion arrived in the mountainous area.
Over the past month or so, the temperature has become significantly cooler, and the changes in the mountainous areas are even more obvious. Although pavement ants can be active in winter, at this time, they try to choose the warmest time at noon before going out to perform combat missions.
Hundreds of legions of pavement ants were divided into more than a dozen clusters and swept across the entire mountainous area near the border, almost uprooting the indigenous tribes here.
However, from the distant mountains, there are still ants coming under pressure from food, trying to enter the mountainous areas controlled by the pavement ant barbarian army in search of precious winter food.
The main task of the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army has gradually changed from clearing out the indigenous Campoback Ant tribes near the border to dealing with the attacks of tribes migrating from far away.
This kind of battle will not last long. As the temperature turns colder, for up to half a month, the pavement ant army will have to withdraw to its homeland to prepare for the winter.
Legions from the south like Suzaku may leave camp earlier to prepare for this year's southern expedition.
The Suzaku Legion has had few combat missions recently. They spend most of their time huddled together with the other two legions in a nest left by a larger indigenous ant to avoid the cold. They only go out to fight when the scouts warn of the approach of a large-scale enemy.
At this moment, Suzaku has already focused on the upcoming southern expedition. He is training his legion every day to use a completely different method of warfare to fight against the ants. That is the dense formation warfare that is used to fight against the big-headed ants. Law.
Suzaku will never forget that his teacher eventually "died" in the battle of the Southern Expedition. Now, maybe it's my turn.
But what he never expected was that he would not be able to return to the south this year!
