On the gravel ground, behind a dune, under the shade of a few tenacious sand weeds, a dozen ants were lurking here.
These ants vary in size, with the larger ones being about 1 centimeter long, with a pair of long, curved, slightly exaggerated, sickle-like jaws that are particularly eye-catching. The small ants are only about 0.6 centimeters, and their jaws are also relatively regular in size.
Regardless of their size, these ants' bodies exude a faint silver light under the scattered sunlight, as if their bodies were coated with a layer of silver powder. Only their heads are brownish-red, which contrasts greatly with the color of their bodies.
These ants are silver-threaded arrow ants, commonly known as silver ants or Saharan silver ants, a type of ant that is adapted to living in the desert and can tolerate high temperatures.
This gravel land has not reached its hottest period yet. By midsummer, the surface temperature of this miniature desert, which is approximately the size of a dozen football fields, can reach over 50 degrees.
Such harsh natural conditions make it impossible for most ants to avoid it. Only these silver ants survive tenaciously. Although the place is barren and the competition is relatively small, many indigenous silver ant tribes are still quite nourished.
Silver ants have a special ability to adapt to the harsh climate of the gravel land. Their silver body surface can reflect most of the sunlight, and they can move quickly to prevent their six limbs from being burned by prolonged contact with hot gravel and stones.
Once these silver ants run at full strength, they can actually cover a distance of one meter per second, which is a speed of 3.6 kilometers per hour. This is an astonishing speed relative to its body length. It is equivalent to a 1.8-meter human running at a speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour, exceeding the speed of a high-speed rail.
At this time, these silver ant warriors did not run with all their strength, but quietly lurked behind the sand dunes, waiting motionless to save precious physical energy.
On the top of the sand dune, there was only one big silver ant watching. She hid her easily exposed silver body in the shadows, only revealing her hard-to-detect red head, and stared motionless at the north.
This is the entire force of a small tribe of silver ants. They learned a "shortcut" to obtain food from their friendly neighbors, so they ambush here.
It is a sunny day today, but it is still spring. Even though it is close to noon, the surface temperature at this time is only about 30 degrees, which is a comfortable temperature. If it's summer, even in the shadows, the native silver ants don't dare to stay for so long. The scorching air makes them only able to move outside for a short time before they have to go to the nest to cool down.
After waiting for about half a day, the target finally appeared.
A transport convoy of more than two thousand pavement ants meandered towards here. Only a few hundred pavement ants among them are warriors wearing leather armor, guarding the outside. The other pavement ants are not armored, but carry food in their mouths and act as porters.
The Silver Ant tribe is waiting for this pavement ant transport team. Although most tribes have trade relations with the pavement ant empire, they will sell their ant eggs in exchange for food when there is a shortage of food in the spring, relying on trade to survive the famine.
But with so much food right in front of them, these silver ant tribes, which have always had a hard time making a living, just can't bear to eat.
As for offending the powerful Pavement Ant Empire? No matter what, the Pavement Ant Empire has spent hundreds of years attacking this gravel land and has never gained any benefits!
Silver ants have very good eyesight, and their eyesight, speed and endurance are the magic weapons that their clan is most proud of.
The belly of the silver ant responsible for the lookout swayed regularly, reminding other warriors to be prepared and the target was approaching.
The pavement ant convoy moved slowly, their long procession passing through the valley below the dunes.
But before the transport team arrived at the ambush site of the silver ants, about five meters ahead, at another sand dune, another group of silver ants suddenly came out first.
The Silver Ant on the lookout was a little stunned. She hadn't noticed that there was an ambush there before. It seemed that the opponent was also hidden on the back of the sand dune, and the lookout soldiers were also well hidden in the shadows.
The other side used the tactics that the Silver Ants were best at, first sending out a few soldiers to lure them head-on, attracting the guards from the Pavement Ant transport team. Then other ants took the opportunity to rush in from other directions, rush directly into the transporting ants, kill some enemies, grab the food and corpses, and run away.
The speed of the silver ants was so fast that even with a heavy trophy in their mouths, the pavement ant warriors could not catch up.
The tribe of silver ants that had been robbed of the lead also hurriedly moved out, reaching a distance of five meters within a few seconds.
Taking advantage of the panic of the pavement ant guards, who were still chasing the silver ant tribe that had robbed them before, this silver ant tribe followed the same pattern, killed more than ten pavement ants, grabbed some food and ant corpses, and ran away.
Unlike ants in other wealthy areas, tribes in barren gravel fields regard ant corpses as common food.
It's dry here, so corpses don't easily breed bacteria, and death from starvation is much more common than death from illness. The silver ants don't mind using corpses as food.
In two sneak attacks, two silver ant tribes grabbed some food, and the damage to the pavement ant transport team was not huge. The loss of ants and food was less than 1%.
But half an hour later, after carrying the food back to the nest and taking a short rest to replenish their strength, the two silver ant tribes followed the traces and came back.
Later that day, four more silver ant tribes who received the news came to rob them one after another. Now the transport team could not turn a blind eye.
By the time the transport team arrived at the next transfer point, one-fifth of the ants and grain had been lost.
This is not the first time that silver ants have robbed people, but the frequency has become higher and higher recently, and more and more indigenous tribes have joined the team of robbers. This transport team has suffered the most losses recently.
When the news came back to the starting base of the Pavement Ant Empire Army, the Pavement Ant Empire Army dispatched the air force known as "Mosquito" to conduct reconnaissance, cooperated with the country's Silver Ant mercenaries, and quickly came to protect them, which was temporarily contained. Lived the rampant silver ant tribe.
At this time, in the sparse forest area south of the gravel land, a war broke out between the red fire ant army and the leaf-cutting ant army.
In this battle, the "wisdom elders" of the red fire ant army made great contributions. From last autumn to this spring, he not only organized a group of internal agents in the Ant Alliance Kingdom, but also made several hidden moves in the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom, which was vast and sparsely populated by ants, relying on his familiarity with the terrain.
These hidden chess pieces are mostly simple campsites in strategic locations, with only a dozen or so ants stationed at each location.
After the fire ant army arrived, they did not launch an attack from the beginning, but divided their forces to strengthen these locations.
Soon, the leaf-cutter ant army found that its retreat was threatened, and its logistical supply lines were attacked many times.
The leaf-cutting ant army hurriedly mobilized its troops to clear the retreat, but was led into the field battlefield by the well-prepared red fire ant army, and suffered a disastrous defeat!
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