The protagonist and Xiao Mi II had a long discussion in their bedroom. This was a rare long-term communication between the two parties. There is still no need to think about it here...
In the past year, the protagonist has returned to [Dongyang City] only a handful of times, and has naturally given very little guidance to the scientific research team.
The protagonist's guidance to the scientific research team is very important. Although the ants, the main force in carrying out scientific research tasks in the scientific research team, are not low in intelligence, it is impossible to expect a Newton or Leonardo da Vinci among them.
These big worker ants are more following the protagonist's instructions, studying small goals such as how to make the rope thinner while ensuring strength, and how to make the pottery larger.
If the scientific research team is compared to a machine, then each big worker ant plays the role of a screw, and the protagonist is the computer that controls the machine.
Once the protagonist does not issue a new task for a long time, many big worker ant researchers will be at a loss and don't know what to do.
The protagonist has been on an expedition for a long time this year, either on the way to unify the south bank of the river, or in the swamps, or on the north bank of the river. He stayed in [Dongyang City] for too little time and gave too little guidance.
And he did come up with a lot of ideas while he was away. He knew that he and his subordinates had many practical needs that needed to be studied and solved by the scientific research team.
Today, the protagonist has set several goals for Xiao Mi II and the scientific research team for next year:
One is the miniaturization of ballistae.
This is to serve the formation of "tank" troops. Only after the crossbow is miniaturized can it be conveniently fixed on the back of the double-pronged rhinoceros beetle and become a mobile fort.
The crossbow springs of the Legion of the Divine Envoy are torsion springs made of locust tendons. The size of the spring set itself is not large. All the scientific research team needs to do is to study the miniaturization of the gun mount and crossbow arm. This mainly requires the precision of the worker ant craftsmen. Processing capacity.
Ants have always been poor at precision processing. After all, no matter how dexterous a pair of mandibles are, they cannot compare to a human's two heads and ten fingers. It can only be done to the best of its ability.
Fortunately, there are more and more copper tools now, and they are becoming more and more sophisticated. If the craftsmen can take efficiency into account, it is not too difficult to reduce the size of the ballista to the specified size.
The time target set by the protagonist for this scientific research task must be achieved before the beginning of next spring. The craftsmen under the scientific research team must provide at least four crossbows to the King of Gods within one month after the beginning of next spring.
The second is to improve the reproductive efficiency of beetles.
Although the Big-headed Ant survivors taught the Angel King's Legion beetle domestication techniques, they didn't know whether they retained it or simply forgot about it. They did not teach the Angel King's Legion how to provide a better breeding environment for the beetles.
In addition to providing an underground nest sheltered from wind and rain, the Angel King's Legion raises beetles. In many cases, the beetles can only be free-range. This is determined by the beetles' food source.
In spring, summer and autumn, these beetles spend a lot of time every day sucking sap or chewing leaves on nearby trees. In winter or when they are under siege, they suck sap from underground tree roots.
If there is no time for them to forage during the march, the ants have to provide valuable honeydew, or fermented sweet drinks, fruit juices and other substitutes, but they cannot be replaced for a long time, and they still have to be allowed to go out to forage every now and then.
In addition to the inconvenience in food supply, the beetles are also dissatisfied with the environment of the beetle nest provided by the ants.
After a series of comprehensive factors, for more than a year, the beetle reproduction efficiency in the Angel King's army has been worrying, resulting in a slow increase in the number of beetles, and even having to rely on digging beetle eggs in the wild to make up for it.
The slow growth of the number of beetles also makes the protagonist's plan to form a new beetle army fail. Rambofer II's 13th Legion was originally planned to be formed into a Beetle Legion, but it still fights as an infantry legion until now.
The protagonist hopes that the scientific research team can form a new animal husbandry team to study the suitable feeding conditions of beetles, so as to quickly improve the reproduction efficiency of beetles and provide basic conditions for the formation of a new beetle army.
The third is to improve the level of agriculture and breeding.
Although the agricultural situation of the God Envoy King Legion cannot be changed, after all, human agriculture in the 21st century is very dependent on the weather. The breeding industry can already meet the demand for meat, and there is no urgent need for improvement for the time being.
However, to prepare for a rainy day, ants can at least develop the technology of seed selection.
Seed selection is to select superior varieties of animals or plants and reproduce them. This is essentially selecting the best and eliminating the bad, and its biggest role is to directionally change the gene frequency of the population, thereby changing the genetic structure and biological types of the population.
In the human world, the crops such as rice, wheat, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes grown in the modern planting industry, and the cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, chickens, ducks and other livestock raised in the modern animal husbandry industry are all very different from their ancestors in the wild. Not the same, this is the role of selection.
Ancient humans have been conducting interesting species selection very early. This work does not require much technological level, and the ants' existing abilities can completely accomplish it.
The protagonist plans to set up an agricultural group under the scientific research group to cooperate with the animal husbandry group to select plants and insects respectively, giving priority to those varieties that reproduce more and have excellent individuals. The focus is to ensure that the traits that are beneficial to the ants can be Retain.
Take Setaria seeds, for example. Setaria is the wild ancestor of wheat, and its seeds can be regarded as miniature versions of wheat grains.
Setaria seeds will have a compound aroma of bread and popcorn after being roasted at high temperature. After fermentation, they can be made into a drink with the flavor of kvass, which is deeply loved by ants.
However, the seed particles are small and the yield is not high. In order to meet the needs of the ants, individuals with large particles and a large number of seeds must be selected for reproduction.
As for the trait of non-shedding of mature seeds that is very important in human agriculture when selecting seeds, ants have no need and even want to avoid this.
After all, humans hope that when harvesting crops, the wheat grains can stay on the ears of wheat, so that humans can harvest the wheat and grass stems together and thresh them afterwards. Rather than having to pick this wheat grain off the ground one by one as the crop matures.
Therefore, humans consciously select and breed varieties whose genetically mutated wheat grains will not naturally fall off after maturity. These species have difficulty reproducing in the wild, but they have become the most widely distributed plant species on the planet through conscious cultivation by humans.
But ants are different. It would be troublesome for them to climb up the tall wheat ears and cut the wheat grains one by one. It is better to let the setaria seeds fall to the ground naturally and organize a large number of ants to collect them.
Different races have different requirements for the shape of crops and livestock. After realizing this, the protagonist can always discover the novelty of the world of ant civilization.
