About a week later, the flying caravans of bullet ants and hairy forest ants arrived in [Xinyang City].
On May 2, the caravan of the bullet ants arrived first.
When the protagonist received the news and went out to greet them, the migratory swarms of bullet ants had already landed, and huge locusts were lying everywhere on the ground.
The protagonist did not witness the spectacular sight of many locusts flying together. He only saw the relevant information package from the patrolling troops.
If the sentries had not known that friendly troops riding locusts would arrive in the near future, so many locusts would have been enough to stimulate the guards to fire back with artillery and ballistae.
There are about a hundred migratory locusts in the bullet ant caravan, and most of the locusts have storage spaces filled with merchant ropes tied to their abdomens. There are various commodities in them, many of which are purchased from the civilized ant tribes along the way. Exchanged there.
The territory of the Bullet Ant clan is poor in products, and earning the price difference through caravan trading is its important source of wealth.
In the aerial caravan of the Bullet Ant clan, the Bullet Ant driver who controls the migratory locust sits on the locust's neck, where there is a recommended saddle made of rope.
The protagonist meets the leader of the bullet ant caravan, a female ant, a huge female bullet ant. She has to lean down to meet the protagonist's tentacles.
This big man was very straightforward and reported their request directly without waiting for greetings:
The Bullet Ant clan brought 2 migratory locusts as agreed, in exchange for 10 snail shell concentrated crow honey and 20 snail shell concentrated honeydew according to the agreed transaction price. At the same time, the bullet ants also hope to trade some pottery and hematite powder with other commodities.
The protagonist asked a magical worker ant named "Xiaoshang" beside him to be responsible for business matters, and connected with the female bullet ant. The two parties quickly figured out their respective material contributions and incomes.
The protagonist asked the other party again, if more migratory locusts can be exchanged this time?
At the previous conference, he was afraid that there would be insufficient stock of crow honey, so he did not dare to order too many beasts. When he came back, he found that there was still a lot of crow honey in stock, enough to exchange for 6 beasts at the current transaction price, plus In the case of honeydew, a total of 10 can be traded.
The Bullet Ant female calculated and rejected the protagonist's proposal. She said that the caravan currently has a lot of goods, especially the 30 snail shell honeydew and crow honey added at once, and there are no spare locusts to trade. Moreover, she couldn't make the final decision on Migratory Locust's transaction. She could only take the protagonist's suggestion back to the meeting for discussion. If it was passed, she would come back to trade next time.
The protagonist has to give up temporarily.
The caravan of hairy forest ants arrived the next day. By that time, the caravan of bullet ants had already flown away. The caravan of bullet ants had to go to [Holy Tree City] in the country of leafcutter ants for trade, so the protagonist did not keep them overnight.
The scale of trade between the Angel King's Legion and the Maolin Ant Clan was even larger. The Angel King's Legion bought a large amount of salt. In addition to the 2 giant dragonflies they ordered, they also bought 4 additional giant dragonflies in one go.
Anyway, nearly half of the giant dragonflies in the hairy forest ant caravan were transporting salt, and the Angel King's army bought the most salt. After the transaction, many giant dragonflies became rich. The male ant leading the caravan is very senior. According to the political system of the Maulin ant clan, he can make the final decision on the giant dragonfly trade.
The Divine Envoy King Legion also sold a lot of things. In addition to honeydew and crow honey, there were also some stone tools, pottery, fermented drinks, ropes and hematite powder.
But in general, in the trade with the Maolin Ant Clan, the God Envoy King Legion paid a lot of goods, because those giant dragonflies were too expensive.
It was the same with the previous trade with Bullet Ants. In order to purchase the beasts, the Angel King Legion had to sell large amounts of honeydew and crow honey, while Bullet Ants wanted very little of other commodities.
In the past, the protagonist felt that the production of honeydew and crow honey in the territory was more than enough, but now that he can trade with other civilized ants through flying caravans, the protagonist suddenly felt that there were too few valuable commodities on hand.
If they rely solely on honeydew and crow honey for trade, the God's Envoy King's Army will inevitably rely too much on a single commodity economically, which is prone to risks.
Once a disease or natural disaster occurs, resulting in a decrease in the production of honeydew and crow honey, the Army of the God Envoy King will be in a dilemma of having nothing to sell.
In addition, the honeydew and crow honey industries take up a lot of land and ant colonies. Moreover, there is always an upper limit to the demand for honeydew and crow honey from other ant tribes, but the more supplies the God Envoy King Legion needs, the better.
The protagonist does not want to rely solely on the export of honeydew and crow honey in exchange for supplies. At the same time, he feels that the barter trading method is too primitive and extremely inconvenient to trade.
The thought of minting coins flashed through the protagonist's mind.
————
After the transaction, the Angel King Army finally formally formed its first air transport team, including 2 star beetles, 2 migratory locusts and 6 giant dragonflies, which can transport about 200 big-headed ants or pavement ant workers at a time. or equivalent supplies.
Although the single transport capacity is not satisfactory to the protagonist, it has the initial ability to develop the south bank of Qinghe River.
The distance between [Xinyangcheng] and the south bank of Qinghe River is only about thirty meters, which is the narrowest section of the river nearby. This is due to the local peninsula topography, which forces the river to make a turn here.
Although the water flow in this section of the river is slightly turbulent, if you are ferrying or building a bridge, you will definitely not choose this place. However, the rapid water flow has no impact on flight transportation. This section of the river is the shortest and is the most suitable place to cross the river.
The protagonist asks the transportation team to step up training, especially to let the big-headed ants and pavement ants learn to control the beasts, and cannot rely entirely on purchased alien drivers.
At the same time, some ants from the scientific research team and the breeding farm also came to inspect and study ways to tame insects such as giant dragonflies and migratory locusts. If the Divine Envoy King Legion could tame these beasts themselves, it would undoubtedly be more cost-effective than purchasing them.
In [Xinyang City], preparations have already begun for the materials and ant colonies needed to establish the first colony on the other side of the Qinghe River.
The protagonist plans to transport a legion in batches to the other side. There is a shrubbery that was originally occupied by a group of digging ants, but this spring it was controlled by nearby leaf-cutting ants.
The protagonist plans to eliminate this small group of leaf-cutting ants, and then colonize this stronghold with leaf-cutting ants and big-headed ant residents.
The local soil is barren and not suitable for developing farmland. Instead, it is better to develop the fungus cultivation industry of the leaf-cutter ants, as well as the honeydew and crow honey industries of big-headed ants grazing according to local conditions.
Then, depending on the situation, we will continue to expand the territory on the south bank of the Qinghe River and build it into the safest rear.
————
The reality does not allow the protagonist to implement his colonial plan with peace of mind.
Although he rejected the leafcutter ant country's plan to jointly attack the red fire ant country, he wanted to avoid the war for the time being.
But war, a common thing in the world of ants, has not spared the protagonist.
On May 10th, a messenger from the Red Fire Ant Nation suddenly arrived in [Xinyang City]. In an orderly manner, he requested the Divine Envoy King's Legion to immediately provide tens of thousands of ant warriors to the suzerain country and go to [Hive City] to assemble.
