After figuring out the path for future development, the protagonist feels a lot more at ease. Even though he has now lost contact with the main force, he is not so nervous anymore.
Just like the Red Army after the Zunyi Conference, even though it was still in a difficult and dangerous environment like the Long March, it had a clear core and direction, and finally liberated the country like a torrent in just a few years.
As his mood improves, the night wind seems to become sweeter. The protagonist leisurely enjoys the beautiful scenery of mosquitoes dancing in the moon and dragonflies flying on the sandbank, which is something that cannot be seen in his hometown.
The moon moved as time went by, and soon it hung from the willow tree in the east to the west. The mosquito mist party is not over yet, the dragonfly feast is still going on, and the protagonist suddenly hears a strange noise.
It came from the west, seemingly under the cliff bank, like a dull sound of wood colliding.
By the moonlight, the protagonist looks towards the sound. It happened to be hidden under a shadow. It was the shadow of the cliff. It was not clear what was inside.
But as the compound eyes gradually adapt to the dim light in the dark, the protagonist notices that there are many reflective moving objects there, which reflect the faint light and reflect the slowly moving tracks.
The protagonist still hasn't figured out what it is, but as long as the opponent doesn't get close to the nest, the protagonist doesn't intend to figure it out. Sometimes being too curious is not a good thing.
Tonight, for example, if you want to figure out what those reflective objects that occasionally make noise are, you have to leave the safety of your nest and the shelter of the smoke. At that time, the flying mosquito swarms will interfere with the line of sight, and the dragonflies that pounce from time to time may attack me alone on the ground, which is not worth the risk.
The protagonist was a little sleepy, so he called the two warriors of the Divine Envoy King who were keeping watch at night, asking them to keep an eye on any unusual movements under the cliff, and report any situation in time, and then he went back to sleep.
The next day, May 18, the ants continued to work during the day, building unfinished nests, collecting supplies such as food and fuel, and filtering and purifying bitter salts.
The ants who went out early in the morning made a lot of gains. Many mosquito corpses fell near the nest. Some corpses smelled of smoke, and seemed to be mosquitoes that were in poor health and died in the smoke; some had injured wings, maybe Some were injured and fell to the ground during Dragonfly's attack; others had no obvious abnormality and probably died at the end of their lives.
Anyway, the ants easily obtained hundreds of mosquito meat, which was enough for many ants to eat meat pie.
The protagonist has already decided to focus on developing civilization in the future. On the one hand, it is to improve the technological level of ants, and on the other hand, it is necessary to plan the internal system of the God Envoy King's army. He found a place in his underground lair to meditate without being disturbed, and wanted to perfect a specific plan. He did not directly command the legion's actions during the day, but only let the four legion commanders act on his behalf.
He has only one request, which is to collect as many resources as possible. Without resources, all development plans are empty talk. Although this sandbank is poor in resources, just collect as much as there is.
In the evening, the protagonist took a short rest and checked today's harvest.
Today the ants' main harvest is weeds, mosquitoes and bitter salt.
Weeds don’t taste good, and ants don’t like to eat them unless they have to. We have reduced the collection today, and only selected some long-lasting, nutritious grass roots and stems to be dried and shipped. The cut grass leaves were messily discarded. Near the nest, it can be used as fuel when dried.
Ants like to eat mosquito meat, but it is basically consumed on the same day and cannot be preserved.
A lot of coarse salt has been prepared and put in empty clay pots, which is enough for more than ten days. The protagonist feels that it is not enough and must continue to stock up. Salt production areas are not so easy to find. At that time, there was only one salt marsh in such a vast land on the south bank of the river. Now that we have found a saline-alkali land, even if the bitter salt produced is of low quality, resources cannot be wasted easily.
——I am the dividing line——
After finishing the chores, the moon has risen, and the protagonist continues to the top of the anthill.
Today, the ant mound has been built higher than the height of the nearby weeds, allowing for a more unobstructed view of the surrounding area.
The moonlight is still bright, the mosquito fog is still gathering and dispersing, and the dragonflies are still lingering.
The protagonist likes the feeling of being alone at night, as if he is the only one in the world, and his thinking is extremely clear.
When he was thinking about specific plans for future development during the day, he would feel drowsy from time to time, but now he felt more energetic.
After admiring the cold scenery of the moonlit sandbank for a while, the protagonist heard the dull collision sound last night again, turned around and saw the reflections, which seemed to be much closer.
The protagonist was a little confused and looked at the reflective objects on the west side of the anthill that were moving in this direction.
There are many pieces of grass scattered around the ant mound, which are the waste left by the ants when they cut the juicy grass stems and fat grass roots during the day. The smell of oxalic acid is faintly exuded in the air.
The protagonist soon discovered that it was the smell of the grass that attracted those reflective things.
In the second half of the night, these reflective objects climbed up the cliff and went straight into the grass. Only then did the protagonist see clearly that they were a large group of snails.
Then a fishy-sweet smell became strong at the same time. It turned out that the sweet smell that the protagonist smelled last night was not an illusion, but a faint smell that drifted over when the smell was far away.
It’s unclear what species these snails are, but there are roughly three types: one is medium-sized, and the largest one is about the same size as the snails I ate in my previous life, but the carapace is pale with black spots; the second type, the largest individual is as huge as a field snail, Like a moving fortress, the carapace is colorful; there is also a small one with a pointed shell, pale with black spots on the shell.
Among the three types of snails, the same type of snails also come in different sizes, just like a set of different types of wrenches.
These snails come in groups and slowly climb up the cliff to feed.
The medium-sized and the smallest two types of snails quickly found food in a piece of residual grass and kept devouring those grass blades.
Another large snail with bright colors caught the protagonist's attention: they seem to eat everything.
The protagonist saw a snail swallowing two small stones while climbing. The stones made a dull crashing sound in its belly. This is where the sound the protagonist heard before came from. The snail naturally cannot digest the stone and quickly spits it out.
In addition, these snails stuff in almost everything they can reach, spitting out what they can't eat quickly, and disappearing the rest into their mouths.
They don't even let go of other snails. Once the two smaller snails are caught by them, they can no longer escape. They swallow the whole flesh and shell.
The protagonist watched for a while and felt that these snails were no threat, so he was ready to go back and rest!
