A group of scout warriors from the Divine Envoy King's Legion were scattered on the ground, roughly forming a fan-shaped formation, searching and advancing from east to west.
Behind the scout troops was the main force marching vertically.
These scout warriors are composed of two types of ants, the hunter ant and the big-headed ant. They have a clear division of labor.
The scythe-hunting ant scouts are responsible for guarding the periphery. Although their proud eyesight advantage is greatly weakened at night, if any predators or enemies dare to make a sneak attack, they will still give them a hard lesson with their big jaws. other side. Outside the cordon, from time to time, disturbed grasshoppers would jump away. These grasshoppers could no longer live for a few days, but they still had a full desire to survive and were not willing to become the ants' meal.
The big-headed ant scouts are intently searching for something. They touch the ground with their tentacles from time to time. Once they find something, they will immediately retreat and pass the information to the male ant team leader.
After analyzing the intelligence, the male ant team leader responsible for gathering intelligence will send the intelligence to higher-level commanders for reference.
These scouts are collecting pheromones left by the Northern Expeditionary Army and the mysterious ants to lead the way for the army at the rear.
Each type of ant has its own unique pheromone language. They cannot understand the meaning of other species' pheromones, but they can smell their presence.
The Northern Expeditionary Army is composed of big-headed ants and has the same origin as the God Envoy King's army. The pheromone languages of both sides are interoperable. The scouts can easily distinguish the meaning of the pheromones left by the Northern Expeditionary Army.
Therefore, the big-headed ant scouts are responsible for finding and reading these languages, while the hunting ant scout warriors can only be responsible for peripheral security.
The pheromones left behind by the Northern Expeditionary Army were huge and mixed, spreading in all directions from the battlefield littered with corpses.
Those pheromones extending in the direction of [Target A] are the most numerous. Among them are road sign pheromones that point the way, and there are also very fresh long-lasting pheromones that have been left for two or three days. The content is to guide the defeated army to retreat to [Target A].
There are also many short-acting pheromones that remain spontaneously. Many of the pheromones that spread disorderly in all directions are short-acting pheromones, and many of the smells have dissipated so weakly that it takes a lot of effort to smell them.
These pheromones are like a book, recording a lot of information.
Those long-lasting pheromones leading to [Target A] in an orderly manner showed that even after the defeat, the troops in the rear who still maintained intact formations still withdrew from the battlefield in an orderly manner and maintained their combat effectiveness. Moreover, the commanders such as the Public Security King are also trying to gather the defeated troops again and let them gather at [Target A].
Those disorderly short-term pheromones that spread in all directions were obviously left behind when the defeated soldiers fled in panic. They hoped to use these pheromones to guide their way, tell their companions where they were going, and also mark them to avoid getting lost. And going around in circles.
The protagonist can imagine the chaotic scene at that time:
When the main force was defeated by the powerful mysterious ant army, the commanders such as the Public Security King and Senior Brother King who were stationed at the rear of the army knew that they were unable to save the day, so they gave up the idea of counterattack, and instead commanded the troops with intact structures and still strength. The rear troops took turns to cover and returned to [Target A] as quickly as possible, preparing to defend the city.
They may have sent rear troops to buy time for the main army. These rear troops were destined to never return.
At the same time, in order to gather more strength, the kings ordered to leave guidance messages along the way to guide the defeated troops to return to [Target A]. This lair was the last place they could rely on.
However, under the pursuit and interception of the mysterious ant army, most of the defeated soldiers of the Northern Expedition were destined to be unable to return to [Target A] smoothly. They fled in a panic in a direction where there were no enemies, leaving marks along the way to help them remember their way.
But it's getting late, and when it gets dark, even if the mysterious ants don't chase them at night, fierce insects and low temperatures will be the killers of these ants who are far away from their nests and exposed to the wild.
Most ants could not survive until the sunrise the next day when the temperature warmed up. Only a few lucky ones found shelters such as crevices in rocks, tree holes, and under fallen leaves, and were able to survive until the next day and return home again. [Target A] has been surrounded by enemy forces, and their best outcome is to find an ant tunnel leading to other nests.
The Northern Expedition Army worker ant warrior that the Bee Flying Knights found and provided information survived in this way. It is not known whether she has returned to the nest or whether she has been hunted by the mysterious ants again.
From the information sent by the scouts, the protagonist found the route to [Target A]. At this time, the flying knights were unable to take off at night. Only by relying on the guidance of ground scouts could the Legion of the God Envoy King reach its destination accurately.
However, what worries the protagonist is that the scouts ahead did not find any pheromones left by the mysterious ants.
The pheromones of each type of ant are different, and each other cannot read their meanings, but they can still tell whether the pheromone is from their own tribe or from a foreign tribe.
Now, in addition to the very obvious pheromones of big-headed ants left by the Northern Expeditionary Army, there are also some very weak pheromones of pavement ants - those are the long ant trails left behind when this place was still a barbarian country of pavement ants. There are relics of pheromone, and there is a clan of pavement ants in the Divine Envoy King's army. Although the big-headed ant scouts cannot read its meaning, they can distinguish its source.
But except for the pheromones left by the big-headed ants and pavement ants, the scouts did not find the pheromones of the third species, which means that there were no pheromones of the mysterious ants left locally.
Don’t the mysterious ants need to rely on pheromones to direct and coordinate the actions of large armies? How can this be? You know, in addition to antennae communication, pheromones are the most important and widest communication method between ants.
The protagonist cannot imagine how the mysterious ant army can coordinate without relying on pheromones. Communication by antennae alone is not enough. Antennae communication is point-to-point communication. Although it is detailed, the scope is too narrow, and the ants do not have the sound medium. Broad-spectrum communication method, pheromones, that is, chemical communication, is the only large-scale and broad-spectrum communication method.
The mysterious ants can't communicate directly by brain waves like what is written in science fiction novels. This is too far-fetched.
The protagonist can only guess that perhaps the mysterious ant's pheromones are relatively unique, and the scouts cannot distinguish them well, confusing them with chemical debris in nature.
Although there is no pheromones from the mysterious ants, the protagonist has obtained a lot of useful information just by relying on the pheromones left by the Northern Expeditionary Army.
The entire legion is also following the pheromone guidance of the Northern Expeditionary Army and is quickly approaching [Target A], approaching the siege force of the mysterious ants.
