The sandbar is overall long and narrow, distributed in an east-west direction, and the terrain gradually rises from west to east. The westernmost part is a gentle tidal flat that may be submerged by rising water at any time.
Due to the inconvenience of turning, the fleet could only follow the river to the beach on the west side of the sandbank.
With the help of the rising water, the Walnut fleet paddled across the thin layer of water on the tidal flat, and did not stop until the first row of boats hit the cliff bank made of soft river sand.
This is a continuously growing sandbar. The sediment carried from the upper reaches during the flood season every year is hindered here and accumulated here, building up the tidal flat little by little, and finally forming a sand dune.
Only those dunes that can overcome the annual floods and are not washed away by the rapids can eventually become part of the sandbar. Those that were washed away formed the tidal flats that collapsed under the cliff.
The sandbar is slowly growing thanks to the annual sediment. Maybe one day it will come together with the south bank or the north bank, changing the direction of the river.
But at least for now, this sandbar, blocked by the river, shelters the island's lush vegetation and unique animal communities.
The Walnut fleet was moored under the cliff bank of the sandbar. It had stopped sailing without needing a cable to fix it, but it was swaying under the current.
Several dexterous worker ant sailors climbed up the sandbank along the slope of the cliff and fixed the cable ropes to several grass stems to stabilize the fleet.
Afterwards, several small groups of God's Envoy King warriors disembarked from the ship, climbed to the cliff bank, established a cordon, and then sent out scouts to search around.
Not long after, the scouts returned, and the search results showed that the area was safe.
Perhaps because the sandbar is separated from the mainland by the river, the vegetation and animal species on the sandbar are very single.
The vegetation is mainly composed of tenacious weeds such as cowgrass, ryegrass and bluegrass. There are only a few shrubs and the only tree is a willow.
There are even fewer animals. Common ants, beetles, earthworms and the like on land are not found on the sand dunes. There are only some Aedes mosquitoes here. These Aedes mosquitoes are hiding from the sun in the shadow of the grass during the day and remain motionless.
Seeing that there was no danger, the large troops also climbed onto the sandbar one after another.
The protagonist is very satisfied with this mooring. At present, there are no creatures that can threaten the army, and the height of the sandbar is enough to ensure that it remains above the water and will not be submerged when the flood level is at its highest.
The protagonist immediately decided to temporarily build a nest and camp on this sand dune, waiting for the flying knight to come find it.
This sandbank is quite large, estimated to be half of the original territory of [Dongyang City]. The protagonist sent more scouts to search this sandbank to see if there were any undiscovered dangers and resources.
——I am the dividing line——
Hundreds of ants are working enthusiastically to build a new nest.
After deciding to anchor here for a long time, the protagonist ordered that while continuing to strengthen the fleet's cables, he began to build a temporary nest.
Although it is said to be a temporary nest, the construction is actually not much different from the formal nest. The ground of this sandbank is still two or three meters above the river, so even if you build an underground nest, as long as you don't dig too deep, you don't have to worry about water seepage.
Therefore, although the main body of the temporary nest is underground, the depth planned to be excavated is very shallow and is more extended in the plane direction.
In addition to the underground part, an ant mound is also planned to be built on the ground higher than the surrounding grass to facilitate observation.
The land on this island is sandy and prone to collapse, so landslides occur frequently when digging nests. Fortunately, even if there is a landslide, it will not cause any casualties. At most, the ants will be disgraced.
In order to avoid landslides, the passage in the temporary nest can only be built narrow enough for two ants to pass by. The nests are reinforced with a simple version of ant concrete made from ant glue mixed with gravel.
The anthills are also built with simple concrete, using collected hay stems as the skeleton.
While building a temporary nest, a group of ants went out to collect food. The protagonist does not intend to use the food reserves on the fleet, they are for war preparation. So it is necessary to collect food on the sandbank.
Although the sandbank has a single species and poor resources, it is more than enough to supply the short-term needs of 10,000 ants.
The most abundant food is the green grass that is available everywhere. These grasses were also the crop varieties in the farmland of the Divine Envoy King's Legion back then. The seeds are very good and easy to preserve food.
At this moment, only bluegrass among these weeds has set seeds, and these bluegrass do not grow well on the barren sandy land.
Although you cannot collect too many grass seeds, the green and tender weeds themselves can also be used as food. Although the taste and nutrition are not as good as grass seeds, they can be used in emergencies.
It is difficult for the ants' intestines and stomach to digest grass directly, but after cooking, it is much easier to digest.
The protagonist asked the ants to build a combustion chamber, and the chimney was located in the ant mound. After collecting a lot of hay and willow branches as fuel, the protagonist broke open a mysterious ball and ignited the fire.
Some of the empty pottery vessels were unloaded from the ship to make pots, and purified water was added to cook the grass stems, leaves and roots cut into pieces. It was a simple but enough soup to satisfy hunger.
Ants don't like this kind of food that seems to be an emergency product in times of famine. In comparison, another food on the sandbank is more popular, and that is meat patties made by Aedes mosquitoes.
Aedes mosquitoes are groggy in broad daylight and are very easy to catch. The hunting ants caught hundreds of Aedes mosquitoes without much effort.
Because I am worried that eating Aedes mosquitoes raw will cause infectious diseases. After all, in the protagonist's previous life, Aedes mosquitoes were an important driver of the spread of yellow fever, dengue fever and encephalitis. Grilled Aedes mosquitoes are easy to burn directly into ashes, so these Aedes mosquitoes are mixed with a small amount of oil to make patties and fried and eaten, which tastes good.
This is not the protagonist’s first way of eating. Mosquito meatloaf is a food in some areas of Africa. Every year with the arrival of the rainy season, a large number of mosquitoes appear in Lake Victoria in Africa. After living with mosquitoes for a long time, local residents developed a kind of food. New food.
Since the daily diet of local people lacks protein, and mosquitoes are rich in protein, local residents use oiled pans to catch a large number of mosquitoes, then shape them into the shape of hamburger meat and heat and cook them until they are completely cooked. The cooking for "mosquito burger" is done.
It is estimated that each "mosquito burger" contains about 500,000 mosquitoes, and its nutritional value is seven times higher than that of ordinary beef burgers. Different local villages have their own cooking methods for "mosquito burgers", but even if the recipes are different, the appearance of the finished product is almost the same.
Ants also love this meat! Compared to the bitter weed soup, the mosquito meatloaf is simply a delicacy.
