The next day, May 26, the sky was cloudy.
After the sun rises, the ants continue to go out to forage for food and repair ships. This is a warm day that ants like. They work very efficiently. According to the progress, the fleet will be able to sail again after about noon!
Because he encountered indigenous ants in the water pine forest yesterday, and a conflict broke out, the protagonist is worried that the enemy will come again. After all, this rich water forest cannot be a deserted land without ants.
Before setting sail, the protagonist did not want unnecessary conflicts and losses, so he ordered the foraging troops not to go too far, and set up a team of the God Envoy King at the intersection of some branches to warn them in time if something happened.
It was peaceful in the morning, but at noon, the native ants did not come, but the bad weather came to join in the fun.
The ants noticed that the weather was changing rapidly. At the same time, the dark clouds in the sky moved quickly at a speed visible to the naked eye, quickly covering the sun and darkening the entire world by several shades.
A thunderstorm, which is very common in summer, poured down at noon in early summer.
The protagonist had to be thankful that the fleet was now moored on the shore, instead of floating like rootless duckweeds on the Qinghe River, which was as wide as the ocean.
The ants all hid inside the ship, but even though dozens of thick cables secured the fleet to the corkscrews, the entire fleet still began to tremble under the strong wind and rain.
The originally gentle Qinghe River became angry under the storm. The waves were like continuous hills. The waves got bigger as they got closer to the middle of the river. That is to say, the wave sea was slightly gentler on the side of Shuishulin.
The walnut boat is like a melon seed shell in a tsunami, rising and falling violently with the incoming waves.
Although there was no water leaking into the walnut boat, everything inside: ants, eggs, food, and supplies were tossed around as if they were thrown into a washing machine.
This storm was more severe than the previous one that caused the Walnut Fleet to be separated from its homeland. The protagonist felt that he was spinning all the time and might hit the bottom, wall or roof of the ship at any time. Everything seemed to be almost weightless as if it were in the sky. It could hit me at any time.
The protagonist can't figure out what he feels. Pain? dizziness? nausea? I had these feelings at first, but then they became more and more intense, and now I seem to have gotten used to them. The protagonist feels very powerless. He can't compete with Newton's laws at all. He can only be beaten like a sandbag here, beaten by the ship, by the cargo, by the gods who bump into him from time to time, and by the interaction force and gravity.
This time seems like a lifetime, but in fact the summer thunderstorms come and go quickly. Only half an hour later, the clouds have cleared and the rain has begun.
Feeling that the waves outside had calmed down, the protagonist dizzily adjusted to the stabilized ship for a while. After letting the equally swaying Tianxian move away from him, he moved to the hatch of the ship, opened it and looked outside.
The dark clouds are already parting, and sporadic raindrops are still falling. The protagonist waited some more to make sure that the weather outside was safe, then got out, and then sent out messengers to call the ships.
The cables did a great job and the storm did not cause damage to the ship, but some of the fragile cargo in the hold was damaged.
For example, some ant and insect eggs were better placed and buffered before, but now the space is crowded due to the increase in goods, and they were damaged in this natural disaster. Some other cargo was also damaged and even contaminated the cabin.
The ants were forced to start cleaning the cabin, discarding the unwanted cargo, and then continued to search for some replacement supplies in the water pine forest.
After all, water voyages cannot replenish losses anytime and anywhere. They must be fully loaded as much as possible before setting sail. Especially since this water pine forest is rich in products, it is an indispensable supply point on the route.
——I am the dividing line——
But while the warriors of the God Envoy King were busy, the protagonist received a warning from the sentry who hurried back. They discovered scattered indigenous ants. The other party hurriedly retreated after discovering them, but it was obvious that the comer was evil.
The protagonist immediately asked his subordinates to return to the ship and set sail immediately. He did not intend to have a meaningless battle with the indigenous ants.
It is not easy for such a large fleet to set sail. It took more than ten minutes to untie the many cables. Then the protagonist used a long stick as a pole to push away the corkscrews, and the fleet entered the river bank again.
At this time, the river was still within the water pine forest and was blocked by trees. The water flow here was slow and the wind was in the opposite direction and the sails could not be set. The fleet was only slowly pushed by the weak current, so it moved very slowly.
Not long after setting sail, the protagonist stood outside the ship and saw a red line moving on a tree not far away. It was the local Bachie ants. It looked like the direction they were moving was exactly where the walnut fleet was previously anchored. There were more than a thousand large and small animals on the other side, and it was obvious that they were coming with bad intentions.
After all, this water forest is the territory of the other party. Even if the other party is not aware of the conflict between the two sides yesterday, they will never tolerate their troops staying here. They will definitely defend their territory.
Those indigenous ants did not find the fleet. From such a distance, except for the protagonist's eyesight, even the hunting ants could not see the target.
The protagonist is also thankful that thanks to Yu Hou, he also sent out a security force, thus averting the war.
The ship moved slowly, and after about an hour, it moved seven or eight trees away.
The leaves in the water forest were so dense that they were completely invisible from a short distance away. At this time, the protagonist saw a spectacular scene.
I saw that these were more than a dozen ash trees gathered together. These trees were in an unnatural state. In the middle of the crown, each tree had more than a dozen leaves gathered into balls of various sizes. They vary, the small ones are as big as ocean balls, and the big ones are as big as footballs.
These leaves obviously did not grow like this naturally, but were changed by some force. The leaves seemed to be stuck together, one on top of another, densely packed, like the scales of ancient warriors. The leaves on the surface of some leaf balls have turned yellow or even dried up. Obviously, these leaf balls have a certain lifespan.
The protagonist knows the origin of these leaf balls, because there are countless ants crawling on them, it is those indigenous ants.
The protagonist finally recognized the identity of this ant. Countless ants held the collected green leaves cut into appropriate sizes and brought them into the leaf ball in a steady stream. Some ants did not carry leaves, but got into some tree holes.
With such eye-catching features, the protagonist naturally recognizes that this is the famous leaf-cutting ant! Memories of leafcutter ants are also recalled. Of course, the protagonist doesn't know that this kind of ant only lived in the Americas in the old world, and he naturally won't be curious about why this kind of ant now lives not far from his homeland.
But after he recognized the leaf-cutter ants, he decided to conquer this species!
