With the completion of [New Yang City], the ants ended their lazy state of doing nothing most of the time on the ship.
Some ants are involved in the internal construction, some are carrying supplies back and forth from the ship, some are hunting on the peninsula, and some ants continue to explore the nearby land. There is plenty of work, but the only thing missing is the ant hands.
The protagonist himself was not idle either. He didn't like to stay in the noisy lair, so he personally led the guard team and joined the exploration army.
The exploration team was divided into several teams, and most of them went to explore the northern periphery of the big poplar tree. The protagonist led the guard team to act alone and first walked around the peninsula where [New Yang City] was located.
I roughly explored this place yesterday, but the protagonist sees things differently from the ant scouts. Some things are worthless to the ants, but the values of the protagonist's previous life may find use. So he planned to walk around personally to see if there were any useful resources.
This peninsula is roughly spindle-shaped, about thirty to forty meters long from north to south, and wide from seven to eight meters to more than ten meters from east to west. The two ends of the spindle are the narrowest, namely the end of the peninsula and the neck, and the middle is the widest.
In terms of topography, the peninsula as a whole is undulating with high west and low east. The west side is on average four or five meters above the water, and the tallest rock is six or seven meters above the water. To the east is a gentle beach that submerges into the river. The entire peninsula slopes from west to east, with almost no level ground, and the average slope is thirty degrees.
A large number of weeds grow on this small peninsula. Although the island looks lush and green, the soil is actually very poor.
When building [Xinyang City], the ants discovered that the soil here was shallow. When digging down about half a meter from the roots of the trees, there was a large amount of sand mixed in the soil, and there was more and more sand as you went down.
The ants referred to their previous experience in building a city on a sandbank and mixed gravel, soil and their own feces to create a simple version of "ant concrete" to ensure the stability of the underlying structure. When they were in their homeland before, they would never choose a place like this to build a city!
Of course, the ants will have to use real "ant concrete" to continuously reinforce it in the future so that the nest can have a longer life and prevent it from collapsing from time to time.
Especially on the east side of the peninsula, the soil layer becomes thinner as you go eastward. Later, when you get close to the river bank, it simply turns into a beach composed purely of river sand.
In such a barren land, it is no wonder that there is only one solitary tree growing near the mainland. This also shows how difficult it is for the big white poplar tree to grow up in such a barren place. The nearest other trees are also a hundred meters away to the north.
In other parts of the peninsula, there are only some shrubs on the west bank, and the rest are weeds.
There are not many types of weeds that can produce seeds for ants to eat. Most of them can only be used to extract fiber to make ropes, but they are not as useful as rattan and hemp fibers, which makes the protagonist very disappointed.
Among the shrubs on the west bank, there is a Pyracantha, which looks malnourished and has sparse branches and leaves. The flowers have fallen by now, but the fruits have not yet grown. But the protagonist recognizes that he has also seen Pyracantha in his hometown. The fiery red clusters of fruits produced in autumn are good fruits, sour and sweet, and have a waxy texture similar to snake fruits.
The other shrubs are of little use. They are all holly and pittosporum. Although the fruits are quite beautiful, they are not enough to satisfy the hunger.
There are some insects on the peninsula, mostly common species such as crickets, rats, and snails, which can also provide some prey.
Apart from these, the protagonist has not found any other useful resources, which is basically consistent with the information obtained by other exploration teams during the rough exploration yesterday evening - it is really a barren peninsula.
After exploring the peninsula, it was already noon. The protagonist led the team back to [Xinyang City] and had a big meal. 918
The main course was roasted cricket legs, which were the prey just brought back by the hunting team and were very fresh.
The entire cricket leg was placed next to the fire in the combustion chamber and roasted to maturity. When it was almost done, the aroma of oil spread everywhere.
The protagonist picked up a leg and waved it in the air a few times to dissipate the heat - the respiratory system and digestive system of ants do not share the same cavity, so he could not blow with his mouth to cool down, and it would feel weird if he blew it with the pores in his abdomen.
Feeling the heat coming from his forelimbs, he hurriedly switched between his left and right hands. When the temperature is cool enough that it is not hot to the touch, the protagonist uses an obsidian jaw knife to pry open half of the shell on the leg, and the roasted brown leg meat is exposed. It feels like opening the leg shell of a crab to eat the leg meat. .
The protagonist was not in a hurry to eat, but smashed the large salt crystals from the small jar next to it and got a little powder out.
He thought for a moment and shook back half of it - there wasn't much salt left, so he might as well save it. Then spread the salt evenly on the barbecue.
The minced salt melts quickly under the heat of the meat, penetrates and disappears into the fibers, and a more alluring smell fills the air.
The protagonist then took the leg over, tore off a piece of meat with his big jaws, chewed it in his mouth a few times, and then swallowed it whole. It was so comfortable!
Although there is only salt as seasoning, the advantage is that the ingredients are fresh. The protagonist has not eaten such good food for more than half a month. The food on the ship is really indescribable. It is almost back to the point where he could only eat sunflower seeds when he first traveled.
There are also a few raw wild vegetables and a glass of water as side dishes.
Although there is a large river nearby, the ants do not draw water directly from the river. They prefer to dig a narrow well that can be more than ten meters deep in their nest to draw clean groundwater.
This is the kind of water the protagonist drinks. Now that there is no honeydew, he can only drink ordinary water like ordinary ants. But this is much better than river water that seems clean but actually contains many impurities.
After eating and drinking, the protagonist couldn't help but sigh that it would be better to be on land.
But as the ants finished their meal and returned to work, the noisy construction noises were heard again. The protagonist hurriedly fled underground and continued to explore the outside world with his team of guards.
This time, he aimed at the north side of the big poplar tree, the inland that had not been explored much.
In the morning, other exploration teams had already searched a small area on the north side of the big poplar tree, no more than thirty meters away. This is also a land where mostly weeds and shrubs grow.
Beyond, there is a large forest, blocking the north side. It looks very green and full of life.
The protagonist feels that there are probably more resources there, but there are also probably more dangers, and there are probably indigenous ants there.
The protagonist was going to tentatively scout the outskirts of the forest. Since it was not a large-scale military operation, he set off with only a squad of guards.
Come to think of it, even if there is any danger, there is no enemy here who can stop me who has the power of "gods from heaven" to break through and run less than a hundred meters away and return to where the main force is.
