When the centipede task force suddenly appeared behind the fire ant army, it was not discovered by the opponent until a distance visible to the naked eye.
The fire ant army, which had ignored rear reconnaissance, was startled. They had experienced battles and knew that if the Centipede Task Force was really an enemy force coming to raid, they would immediately fall into a passive situation where they would be attacked from both sides.
Fortunately, the conflict had subsided temporarily. The two sides were facing each other with a distance of about one decimeter, and there was no major fight under the pressure of the commander.
The task force hurriedly circled back to the main army's formation, and finally returned to the homeland after many days.
Prior to this, the two armies that were originally fighting each other had retreated a few steps. Although they were still facing each other, they did not expand the conflict.
On the red fire ant army's side, the army was summoned after the arrival of an elder-level male ant. On the side of the God Envoy King's legion, the protagonist is closer and arrived earlier.
However, the protagonist did not take the initiative to stop the conflict. Recently, the red fire ants have become more and more arrogant. Within three days, they sent two groups of envoys to demand this and that. They really regard themselves as the suzerain country and the God Envoy King's army as vassals that are easily bullied! ?
The attitude of the red fire ants actually shows the conflicting attitude within the male ant class towards the Angel King's Legion in their country.
Although the God Envoy King's Legion took the initiative to become a vassal of the Red Fire Ant Nation, the two sides reached a contract. But the red fire ant males are not stupid either. They clearly know that this vassal is different from other vassals. This contract is also very strange. The other party does not need to unconditionally obey the suzerain?
Is such a vassal still considered a vassal? With the fire ant's temper, it is obvious that he cannot tolerate such a bilateral relationship that is not good for him.
But what brought about a turn of events was the large amount of honeydew and crow honey that the Divine Envoy King's legions continuously provided through tribute and trade.
Are honeydew and crow honey important?
It can be said that it is not important. After all, this is not food. If you don't eat it, you will starve to death. Ordinary fire ant warriors still mainly eat the food provided by slaves. Honeydew basically has no share for them, let alone crow honey. .
But it can be said to be very important, at least it is difficult for male ants to leave this luxury now.
The country of red fire ants has a strict hierarchy, and male ants have a higher status than ordinary soldiers. There is also a hierarchy within the male ant class, and the elders are above ordinary male ants. Even within the elders and ordinary male ants, the senior ones can legitimately control the junior ones.
This hierarchical system is also vividly reflected in the supply of materials in the red fire ant country. Elders can allocate honeydew and crow honey, ordinary male ants can allocate honeydew daily, and warriors can only receive honeydew after an epic victory such as the "Battle of the World". Only then did I have a chance to eat some diluted honeydew water.
Before there was no high-quality honeydew and crow honey provided by the Angel King's army, the red fire ant country relied on the light honeydew of the brown-helmeted wax scales paid tribute by the ant clan to reflect the hierarchy.
But with the introduction of honeydew and crow's honey, the ant family was wiped out, and the breeding industry of brown-helmed wax scales was completely abandoned. The source of honeydew and crow's honey that the male ant class in the red fire ant country was obsessed with was completely monopolized by the God's Envoy King Legion. in hand.
The male caste of fire ants has not yet realized that trade can be just as deadly as force. But their thirst for honeydew and crow honey made them feel that they needed to continue to maintain a relationship with the Divine Envoy King's Legion, and on the other hand, they coveted the abundant resources of the Divine Envoy King's Legion.
The male ant class of red fire ants has polarized views on the Angel King's army. The elders who can get sufficient supply of honeydew and crow honey, even in the current wartime, have slaves carrying snail shells filled with concentrated honeydew and crow honey, and they still drink in the sweet liquid every day. .
If it's just honeydew, crow honey makes them addicted. The brain is no longer fiercely thirsty for blood, but is numb. The desire for crow honey gradually overwhelms everything, and even slowly overwhelms the bloodthirsty and murderous instinct. .
These elders began to tend to coexist with the God Envoy King's legion, as long as they could obtain enough crow honey.
Honeydew does not have such a strong addictive effect. Ordinary male ants who can only obtain honeydew supply are extremely eager for honeydew, but they cannot obtain enough honeydew like the elders.
They are thirsty for more honeydew, but except for the honeydew that is paid as tribute, other honeydew must be obtained from the Legion of God's Envoy King through barter transactions.
These ordinary male ant commanders are not only dissatisfied with the amount of honeydew they obtain every day, but also feel that their country's trophies and products are constantly being lost in trade. Therefore, in their greed and hatred, they had a bad impression of the God Envoy King's army.
The number of ordinary male ants is huge. Since the red fire ant country is unable to satisfy their pursuit of honeydew through trade, these male ants feel that there is no need to obtain honeydew through trade. They directly eliminate this vassal and let the captured slaves do it for themselves. Wouldn’t it be nice to produce honeydew for free?
It is precisely because of the difference in concepts between the elders of red imported fire ants and ordinary male ants that the paradoxical behavior of ordinary male ant commanders leading their troops to provoke conflicts, and then stopping the conflicts after the elders arrive.
During the conflict, the Angel King's Army lost more than a dozen soldiers, and the Red Fire Ant Army lost several times that number. This was even when the God's Angel King's Army did not use ballistas, tanks, and slings.
The commanders of the red fire ant army also saw the disparity between the bodies of both sides in the open space between the two armies, and they didn't know what they thought.
Under the intentional suppression of the fire ant elders, this conflict did not become serious. However, the face of the sovereign nation needs to be preserved, and the elders of the red fire ants have a tentacle-to-tentacle meeting with the protagonist.
In the eyes of red fire ants, [Hematite City] is an important trophy. Last year, the red fire ant country seized a lot of trophies here, including the hematite of honeydew and crow honey exchanged from the Angel King’s Legion through middlemen. ore.
This year, the fire ant army has also been coveting [Hematite City] for a long time, hoping to plunder some more supplies that can be exchanged for honeydew and crow honey, but they didn't expect that the place had already changed hands.
The elders of the red fire ants angrily stated that [Hematite City] was their natural trophy and had been stolen by the God Envoy King's army. However, the protagonist presented an information packet, stating that long before the fire ant army counterattacked, the Angel King army had independently captured this place and repelled the leaf-cutting ant army's counterattack.
The fire ant elder was convinced, but he still needed to appease other angry male ants.
In the end, the protagonist agreed to pay an additional tribute of 6 snail shell honeydew and 1 snail shell crow honey this year as compensation for this incident.
With the compensation, the red fire ant army accepted this solution even though the male ants were still reluctant.
The male ants completely ignored the foreign soldiers who died in vain on the ground. They only took away the bodies of the red fire ant soldiers and then led the army to leave.
The conflict subsided, but this incident completely exposed the contradiction between the God Envoy King's Legion and the Red Fire Ant Nation.
