For several days, the protagonist has been looking at the water of the Qinghe River flowing eastward, thinking about how to build a transportation system that can cross the river.
The rope bridge is no longer viable. The Qinghe River is too wide. Due to the effect of gravity, such a long rope bridge will fall very hard in the middle. Even if the two ends of the rope bridge are built very high, it will barely ensure that the middle part of the rope bridge does not fall into the water. This can be guaranteed during the flood season.
Once the rope bridge is submerged in water, it will not only be temporarily unusable, but also the increased weight after soaking, the microorganisms and fungi that breed on the wet ropes, and the moisture in the ropes that freezes, expands, and even splits the fibers in winter. These conditions will all be reduced. Lifespan of rope bridges.
Also, such a long rope bridge is prone to swaying when there is a little wind. The longer the rope bridge, the greater the impact of wind. The wind speed for most of the year will cause the rope bridge to sway to the point of being impassable.
The rope bridge is obviously not an option to solve the traffic problem on both sides of the Qinghe River.
Rope bridges won’t work, and neither will floating bridges. The protagonist thought about using walnut boats to build a pontoon, but was also afraid that the current would cause the pontoon to sway too much. Moreover, during the flood season, the pontoon bridge will be destroyed if it is not put away, which means that the pontoon bridge cannot be used for three months out of the year, and the pontoon bridge must be rebuilt every year.
Ordinary bridges are even worse. Ordinary bridges require piers, and ants simply don’t have the technology to build piers underwater.
Now the only ones who can freely cross the river obstacles are the flying knights. However, the flying knights' transportation capabilities are very limited. It is simply unrealistic to rely on the flying knights to ensure the transportation of ants and materials on both sides of the river.
However, the flying knight has a small transportation capacity, but the protagonist knows that there is a flying vehicle with a large transportation capacity.
In previous diplomatic communications and military conflicts, the protagonist learned that the leaf-cutting ants had domesticated the star beetle, an insect mainly used as a war beast.
But the star beetle can also be used as a short-distance transportation vehicle. A star long beetle can carry up to dozens of leaf-cutter ants on a saddle at a time.
This is because the leaf-cutting ants are all crowded into the saddle on the back of the star beetle's head, so the space is relatively small. If a "cabin" is hung under the beetle, the powerful beetle can carry hundreds of ants or a similar amount of supplies at one time.
Since the cross-region river flight range is very short, Star Beetle can fly at full capacity and then rest for a while. This is the most economical way.
The protagonist feels that it is necessary to form a transport team of star beetles, which can be used for short-distance transportation across rivers and can also be used as a new channel for long-distance rapid transportation.
The protagonist asks the ants to search for the eggs and larvae of the star beetle in the territory.
Star beetles are actually very common insects, especially in the woods. The carapace is black and can grow up to 5 cm long and 2 cm wide. They are very eye-catching. There are white spots on the left and right sides of the pronotum of the star beetle. There are also many white spots scattered on the wing sheaths. Some individuals have white spots. It looks like a dense cluster of stars, and some only have a few big white spots, which look like the moon.
However, although adult beetles are common, especially in areas with a lot of woodland, their larvae and eggs are difficult to find.
The ants from the Angel King's Army searched everywhere in the Black Forest, Leafcutter Ant Forest and Golden Beach Forest, but found nothing.
Later, I learned from the vassal forest ants and the ant family that the eggs of the star beetle are hidden under the bark of the tree. After hatching, the larvae will not climb outside, but will hide deeper in the trunk, and the eggs and The area where the larvae are located has no entrance to the outside.
In the past, the star beetle larvae occasionally caught by wood ants and ants were found by chance only when they encountered natural cracks that allowed them to enter their burrows and thus had the opportunity to hunt.
Moreover, both forest ants and ants unanimously stated that the larvae of the star beetle are very bad-tempered and will twist their bodies desperately when caught by ants. They can only kill them on the spot and take them away. It is impossible to capture them alive. of.
Led by experienced forest ant and ant ant guides, a group of Angel King warriors and worker ants who had domesticated beetles found three star beetle larvae in the Golden Beach Forest. As expected, they could not subdue them and could only kill them.
As for the eggs of the star beetle, they are hidden even more secretly than the larvae. It is impossible for the ants to lift up pieces of bark to find them, and they cannot be domesticated from the eggs.
After failing to find the longhorn eggs and subdue the larvae, the protagonist is curious about how the leaf-cutter ants domesticated hundreds of longhorn beetles. They must have a unique secret.
Seeing that the ancient god's ant inheritance conference is about to be held, the protagonist is also preparing to leave, and then go to the leaf-cutting ant country to see if he can learn their domestication technology.
————
On April 24, the protagonist set off for the Leafcutter Ant Country to attend the conference the next day.
He led a small group of flying knights, rode "Xiao Hei", and flew lightly to the west-north direction.
In the past few days, a ground transport team has been carrying honeydew, crow honey and other gifts to the main nest of the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom. These are gifts that the protagonist is preparing to give to the participating ant tribes.
Flying in the air, the protagonist and his party who have just set off basically move along the planned course of the canal.
On the ground, some river channels have been formed, and the rest are basically being constructed by pavement ants and big-headed ants. A ravine slightly wider than a walnut leaf has been spreading, and it looks very spectacular from the air - this is simply the Beijing-Hangzhou in the ant world. Grand Canal!
The protagonist and his party first flew to [Hematite City], and then sent a messenger to fly to the other side of the stream to report.
After getting permission from the other party, the protagonist took off with the flying knight guards. There were already six star beetles waiting on the other side. After seeing the protagonist and his party, a star beetle came close to confirm its identity.
When the female ant on the back of the star beetle recognized the protagonist visually, she turned around and flew back, followed by the protagonist and the flying knights. Five other star beetles accompany him in front, back, left and right.
The mixed formation of Star Beetles and Flying Knights maintained a constant speed and flew for more than an hour. The majestic main nest [Holy Tree City] of the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom appeared in front of them.
The tall sacred tree has a green crown, almost blocking out the sky and the sun.
The flying knights were all shocked by the aura of this huge ginkgo tree that towered over the sky and was estimated to be a thousand years old. Fortunately, the protagonist had already been shocked once in advance in the information package from "Little Flower".
The ginkgo tree gradually divided into two trunks from the root upwards. The star beetle guided the flying knights not to land on the platform on the tree, but to go around behind the ginkgo tree and land on the ground in the shade.
Only then did the protagonist see that there were many unnatural thin wooden piles on the ground, and many of the thin wooden piles had some insects tied to them.
There were star beetles, different bee species, and a very huge insect, a giant dragonfly as big as a human hand, also parked there.
The protagonist guesses that the people parked here are the mounts of the envoys of the ant tribe who are here to attend the meeting!
