On April 9, the long-planned leaf-cutter ant army launched a counterattack across the river, with careful planning and fierce offensive.
At this time of year, the weather has warmed up, and the occasional late spring cold in early spring is rare. The offensive side does not have to worry about the sudden bad weather that is common in March and is forced to stop operations. Temperature is no longer a boost that defenders can rely on.
Since the stream bank on the side of the Divine Envoy Army was heavily fortified, especially the branches of the trees on the east bank of the stream extending to the west side were cut off in large numbers, leaving no opportunity for the leaf-cutting ant army to take advantage of.
The main attack direction of the leaf-cutter ant army is placed north of [Red Fire Ant City]. There, the defenders only have 20,000 fire ant soldiers, and there are another 100,000 vassal soldiers or slave auxiliary soldiers. Their combat effectiveness is far inferior to that of the red fire ants themselves. Clan warrior.
However, the defenders faced an attack that was four times their own. There was a huge disparity in strength.
It is not easy for the leaf-cutting ant army to counterattack. The stream is a natural chasm. Historically, the fire ant army has rarely been able to attack the other side of the stream.
Now that the stream has blocked the counterattack of the leaf-cutting ants, the first thing they have to do is to cross the river. Although this stream that isolates the two armies is not wide, the current is very fast, even in early spring. Some ant forces can build pontoon bridges, but the pontoon bridges are of no use here.
Leafcutter ants used to rely on roads in trees to cross streams. The first stage of their counterattack was to compete for control of trees and then build roads.
The red fire ant army did not saw off all the branches that might be used by the enemy like the Angel King army, which gave the leafcutter ant army an opportunity to take advantage of.
Now, on both sides of the stream, there are several trees with dozens of branches very close to each other. These are the targets of the leaf-cutting ant army.
Last year, when the leafcutter ant army retreated to the west bank of the stream, all traffic lines on the trees across the stream were blocked to prevent the fire ants from pursuing them.
The branches that were originally tied together with ropes were split, and the long rope bridge across the sky was also cut off. Only on windy days, branches would occasionally stick together, but this was fleeting and could not lead to a path.
If an army of 500,000 leaf-cutting ants wants to cross the river to counterattack, roads must be rebuilt for the walking army.
The leaf-cutter ant army does have a solution. Early that morning, hundreds of beetles suddenly flew towards the east bank of the stream, carrying thousands of large leafcutter ants and small leafcutter ant warriors.
The red fire ant army has deployed a certain surveillance force on each tree. After they discovered the enemy attack, they immediately sent out messengers to warn the nearby large forces, and then prepared to fight.
However, the star beetle was already flying very close at this time, and the large troops could not arrive in time to support it.
The star beetles flew at a slow speed and landed on the branches of the target trees in an orderly manner.
The leaf-cutting ant warriors on the backs of the star beetles quickly came down, while the fire ant army guarding these trees basically only had two or three vassal or slave warrior squads, and were quickly defeated by these elite leaf-cutting ant warriors.
Afterwards, several more star beetles took off from the opposite bank. There were no warriors on their backs, only some leaf-cutter ants pulling ropes.
One end of the rope was connected to the opposite bank. The leaf-cutter ants quickly fixed the other end of the rope to the nearest branch on the bank, and a simple rope bridge with a single rope was set up.
Subsequently, more leaf-cutter ants crawled over along the ropes that had been set up, and connected the two banks with more ropes. Some even laid short wooden branches, and quickly built a wide rope bridge.
The leaf-cutter ant army was very skilled in erecting the rope bridge. It was not like the stumbling steps when the God Envoy King's army built a shorter bridge in [Linshui City]. It was obviously not the first time they had done this kind of thing. The overpasses and highways crisscrossing the trees in the country of Leafcutter Ant probably all came from this.
With such bridge-building technology, it is no wonder that the leaf-cutting ant army decisively abandoned the east bank of the stream and retreated to the stream bank!
More than a dozen rope bridges were erected one after another, and the leaf-cutting ant army began to cross the river in large numbers.
At this time, the main force of the fire ant army finally launched a counterattack. They had learned about the rope bridge and the enemy's crossing of the river from the scouts. They knew that if they wanted to prevent the enemy from crossing the river, they had to occupy this end of the rope bridge and then cut off the bridge. .
The fire ant army began to counterattack every tree at the same time. They divided their troops. Each troop had a small number of troops. After struggling with the star beetles and infantry troops for a while, they did not achieve any results. They were soon defeated. The constant stream of leaf-cutter ants crossing the bridge were repelled or even overwhelmed.
After seeing that nothing could be done, the elder, the supreme commander of the fire ant army, gathered his troops and formed a round formation on the ground to resist.
They can no longer escape. The leaf-cutter ant army is familiar with the roads in the trees, and its maneuvers in the trees are no slower than the fire ant army's movement on the ground.
Part of the leafcutter ant army entangled the fire ant army, and the other part had instinctively advanced along the tree, and soon blocked the fire ant army's retreat.
After a day of fierce fighting, the red fire ant army, which was mainly composed of vassals and slave warriors, collapsed, and then the whole army was wiped out. The first stage of the leaf-cutting ant army's counterattack was a big victory, which can be considered a small tabloid. Last year's "unparalleled battle" was a big one. The hatred of defeat.
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When the leaf-cutter ant army crossed the river, the flying knights had already warned [Hematite City], and the Divine Envoy King's army had also entered a state of combat readiness.
Today, there are three flying knight squads stationed in [Red Iron City]. Every time they go out for reconnaissance, a whole squad will be dispatched. Every 10 magical ant flying knights act collectively as a team.
The reason why the flying knights want to act collectively is because the star beetles of the leaf-cutter ant army have convinced them. Nowadays, the flying knights no longer dare to go to the other side of the stream to conduct reconnaissance. Occasionally, they will be chased by the star beetles during reconnaissance. The flying knights were ordered to Not willing to fight, he relied on the speed of the fly mount to get rid of the enemy.
When this battle was coming to an end, the three star beetles of the Qieye Army were approaching [Hematite Castle], whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Although the Flying Knight was ordered not to engage in aerial combat with the enemy on the other side of the stream, the main reason was for fear of damaging the precious Flying Knight - once in danger, even if the Flying Knight jumped to escape, he would fall on the enemy's land and die.
But around [Red Iron City], there was no such concern. Two nearby flying knight groups were ordered to guard the airspace and launched a counterattack against the Star Beetle.
These star beetles fight on their own. When they see the flying knight, they rush over. The ugly star beetles open their jaws, which are their weapons.
There are also a small number of leaf-cutting ant warriors on the back of the star beetle. The number is not as large as when crossing the river to seize the beachhead position, otherwise it will affect the flight speed and flexibility of the star beetle.
Of course, the flying knights will not take the initiative to ram into the big mouth of the Star Beef. They start to gain height - height and speed. These are the two elements that the God Envoy King Army has repeatedly taught the flying knights to have an advantage in aerial combat.
The 20 flying knights flew diagonally into the sky at two ends. The agility of the fly mounts prevented the star beetles chasing behind from climbing up and posing no threat for the time being.
