The days of seclusion always pass quickly.
The sun rises and sets in the sky every day. As time goes by, even without a clock, you can clearly feel that the days are getting shorter.
The grass and trees are also aware of the changes in the seasons. Sweet and tender fruits are gradually hanging on the branches and grass tips, while the green and tender leaves are gradually turning yellow.
Insects also know that the seasons have changed. Some short-lived insects are spending their last days, but they still scream.
Living in seclusion does not mean doing nothing. The revitalization of a force requires too much to worry about, especially in a relatively unfamiliar area surrounded by powerful enemies.
Fortunately, everything is on track.
When late autumn came, the Divine Envoy King's army was gradually returning to its heyday, and its strength was also gathering bit by bit.
Now, there are two cities in the territory of the Divine Envoy King's Legion, namely the main nest [Xinyang City] and the agricultural and animal husbandry auxiliary nest [Nansen City] in the north.
The total ant population in the territory has reached more than 100,000, including about 90,000 big-headed ants, about 5,000 pavement ants, about 3,000 sickle-hunting ants, about 2,000 leaf-cutting ants, and about 2,000 abdominal ants.
In terms of military strength, the protagonist has not carried out a major expansion of the army. It is still dominated by the four legions on the walnut fleet, but has been adapted to ensure combat effectiveness.
Since the commander of the newly formed 8th Army, Xibao, died during the epidemic, the Army was disbanded and its subordinates were dispersed and replenished to the other three armies.
The remaining three legions have been reorganized and trained, supplemented with scythe-hunting ant scouts, adjusted their weapons according to the current situation, and reorganized their numbers.
The three legions are:
The Stag Elephant's 1st Legion has 48 Big-headed Ant soldier ant squads and 2 Scythe-hunting ant scout squads, with a total of 51 commanders at all levels and 2,500 soldiers.
Jianiu's second legion, like the first legion, has 48 squads of Big-headed Ant soldiers and two squads of hunting sickle ants, totaling 51 commanders at all levels and 2,500 soldiers.
Centipede's 3rd legion is an experimental force, consisting of 30 big-headed ant soldier ant squads, 8 pavement ant squads, 2 sickle-hunting ant scout squads, and 5 large and medium-sized leafcutter ants. The soldiers formed a team, a team of 5 belly-lifting ants. , a total of 51 commanders at all levels and 2,500 soldiers.
Among them, the 1st Army and the 2nd Army are still equipped with advanced weapons such as copper jaw knives brought from their homeland, as well as some weapons reserves. The weapons of the 3rd Army are more primitive weapons such as locally produced gravel jaw knives.
This is the best option when there is no source of copper in the new territory, and gravel weapons return again in this context.
In terms of economic construction, the Legion of the God's Envoy King has made a good start in a foreign country. In this famine year, it has stored enough supplies for a winter in advance through territory management and trade, and there is still a surplus.
In particular, the honeydew industry used for trade has developed very prosperously. Through the belly ants as middlemen, the God Envoy King Army can continuously trade various scarce resources in the territory from red fire ants.
No, in the golden autumn season, the God Envoy King Army learned from the ant tribe that the red fire ant army and its vassal armies had returned to the main nest. In order to reward the meritorious soldiers and dispose of some unused trophies, they started again A new round of big trade.
The protagonist spent a lot of effort trying to personally learn from "Old Heart" about the battle report of the red fire ant army's expedition to the leaf-cutting ant territory, so as to understand the military strength and tactics of these two potential enemies.
But unlike those simple ants in their hometown, they certainly know the importance of military intelligence. Moreover, compared to the legion of the God Envoy King who had defeated them once but allowed them to make money, the red fire ants of the suzerain country, which had the power of life and death, were naturally more fearful to the ants.
Between economic interests and survival, the Belly Ants chose the latter, and they refused to disclose the details of this war to the protagonist.
But the protagonist still took the opportunity to understand the general direction of the war, as well as the list of supplies that the red fire ants can trade with.
In this war, the red fire ants not only gathered their own troops, but also asked each vassal to contribute a large number of ant eggs to hatch. Among them, forest ants, abdominal ants and black brown ant warriors who are good at forest fighting also joined the army after hatching. A coalition army was formed to go on an expedition.
It's just that "Old Heart" didn't disclose the size of the red fire ant coalition, and maybe they don't know it either. After all, his source of information is from the same race in the coalition that he doesn't agree with, and the other party may also be on guard.
The fire ant coalition marched westward to attack the leaf-cutter ants in the riverside woodland. It is said that they captured many nests and took back a large amount of loot.
But then, the leaf-cutting ants began to fight back, and the red fire ant coalition was first victorious and then defeated, forcing them to retreat.
There is no specific information, and the protagonist does not know the specific results of the red fire ant coalition this time. Calculate the profits and losses. But judging from the fact that the fire ants still have a lot of loot that can be exchanged for trade, they have indeed achieved their goal of obtaining additional supplies in the lean years.
Perhaps, the fire ants also used this natural disaster and war to achieve the purpose of reducing the redundant ant population of their own tribe and squeezing the resources of the vassal ant tribe. If this is really the case, the intelligence and art of rule of fire ants need to be upgraded again.
The fire ants have a lot of supplies to sell next, and there is nothing to keep secret. The ants are going to exchange some of them with sand gold and grain.
After the Divine Envoy King's Legion expressed their intention to participate in the transaction, the Belly Ants immediately handed over the list. They were eager to participate in the transfer trade of the Divine Envoy King's Legion. This year they have made a lot of profits through this channel.
The list is indeed rich in variety, but after scanning the list, the protagonist feels that the Divine Envoy King’s Legion needs very little.
There are two categories of big heads in the list.
The first category is food, which is basically fungus grown by leaf-cutting ants. Most of it has been dried and can be stored for a long time. The fire ants obviously cannot digest so much food of a single type, so they trade it, but it is clear Food must be exchanged.
Although the protagonist does not have much food on hand, it is still possible to trade some dried mushrooms to expand the food variety.
In addition to dried mushrooms, the food also contained a small amount of fresh fungi, which made the protagonist extremely happy.
Although there are also leaf-cutter ants under the command of the Angel King's army, these leaf-cutter ants do not produce fungi like their kin because they do not have bacterial strains on hand...
Female leafcutter ants will also carry a little mycelium to a new colony before their nuptial flight to ensure that the fungus can continue to grow in their new home.
But when the Angel King's army snatched the leaf-cutting ant eggs, they snatched too little mycelium, and the big-headed ant workers didn't know how to take care of them, so they all died soon, leading to today's embarrassing situation.
Now, the necessary mycelium for building a fungus garden is finally available, and the protagonist decides to buy it immediately!
