The protagonist's exploration team stayed in the swamp area outside the east border for an extra half day. Their original plan was to go directly through it.
The protagonist mainly leads the ants from the engineering department to study and plan the general route for building an aerial rope bridge in the swamp area, while also studying whether the terrain problem of the swamp can be solved once and for all. By then, there will be no need for an aerial rope bridge.
Ever since he learned that the annual Qinghe River floods created this swamp (the deputy nest on the border of the Ant Alliance has records of this matter), the protagonist suddenly had a whim. If the opening between the Qinghe River and the swampland was completely blocked, , then this quagmire will never be submerged again. After losing the water source, the swamp will gradually dry up and may turn from a barren land into a fertile soil.
However, after investigation, the protagonist's idea was purely whimsical. There was no faucet-like lake mouth connecting the swampland and Qinghe River, but a large low tidal flat.
The height of these tidal flats can usually block the inflow of clear river water, but they can be easily crossed during the flood season.
If the protagonist wants to build a section of earth embankment to block the flood of Qinghe River, it is not enough to block a small opening as he imagined, but it will be necessary to build a section of embankment nearly 1 kilometer long and 3 meters high. .
This amount of work is difficult for even the already powerful Ant Alliance to undertake. It is no less difficult than asking a primitive tribe in the Amazon rainforest to build the Great Wall with bare hands.
It seems that the swamp area is destined to be unable to be developed and utilized. It is the best result to connect it with a rope bridge and use it as a transfer station.
After all, if you take a detour from the southeast direction of the swamp, the distance along the way will be nearly twice as long, and you will still be traveling through dense forests. There are countless indigenous tribes in the dense forests to conquer, which is not an easy task. In contrast, building an aerial rope bridge across the swamp has more long-term advantages.
In this swamp, the exploration team also found traces of a small number of ant tribes. It seems that this is not a completely ant-free land.
Living in the swamp is the corn ant, a race of tree-dwelling ants. This type of ant is very common and highly adaptable. The protagonist is not surprised to appear in the swamp area.
The tribe of corn ants here generally has a small population. They live in some tall trees and a few highlands that can be exposed to the water all year round. The living area conflicts with the location where the Ant Alliance plans to build an aerial rope bridge. After all, there are many people in the swamp. There are only so many good places.
Therefore, the military staff in the exploration team paid more attention and recorded the distribution of these corn ant tribes. In the future, before building the rope bridge, the Divine Envoy Army must first send troops to eliminate and expel these indigenous corn ants.
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In the swamp area, the exploration team spent the night. This time there were giant dragonflies carrying supplies. The flying knights also reduced the amount of weapons they carried and brought more food. The exploration team had a total of 5 days of food stocks and was not in a hurry.
In line with the good habit of saving food, the flying knights caught a few bugs for dinner near the tree hole where they spent the night.
The nights in the swamp are much more humid and cold than outside. Fortunately, it is summer, so it is not uncomfortable.
The next day, before the expedition team set out, a few corn ants somehow found their way to the vicinity. They were startled by the sudden movement of the flying knights, turned around and ran towards the nest.
The exploration team was leaving anyway, and the native corn ants could not threaten him, so they ignored him and Shi Shiran flew away.
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After crossing the swamp, except for a small patch of relatively fertile land on the edge of the swamp, the exploration team soon entered a barren highland.
The terrain on the north and south banks of Qinghe River began to gradually climb upward, and the section of Qinghe River also transitioned into a river canyon.
The highlands formed by the gradual climbing of both sides of the river bank have an altitude of about 100 meters at the highest point, forming low hills. The average altitude of the highlands is also thirty or forty meters above sea level.
The soil here is shallow, exposing large areas of gravel. There are few trees, but wild grass grows densely.
Looking from Qinghe River to both banks of the river, you can see cliffs tens of meters high, which in the eyes of ants are as spectacular as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
The protagonist rides on the back of "Ah Huang" and picks up his tentacles. Although the vegetation in this highland is relatively green, it is obviously not as fertile as the plains. Judging from the main needs of the Ant Alliance for planting, breeding, and grazing industries, this highland is not the most suitable land for economic development.
The protagonist climbed up and took advantage of today's good weather to look around. In the three directions of east, south and north, on the horizon, there are faint blue mountains. They don't look high, but they are rolling and can't be seen at all. The end.
Previously in the [Xinyang City] area, the altitude was relatively low, and due to the distance factor, the protagonist had not noticed that the terrain in the distance was so winding.
From this point of view, the area where the Ant Alliance and the local civilized ant tribe are located seems to be a north-south strip of plains between the hills to the east and the mountains to the west.
This plain is not small, but it is not big enough. At least it cannot accommodate the peaceful coexistence of so many civilized ant tribes and barbaric ant tribes, nor can it accommodate the ambitions of the Ant Alliance.
The protagonist's confidence in the plan to expand to the lower reaches of the Qinghe River has been somewhat shaken. Wherever he can see, excluding vegetation and terrain interference, he can see that there are no large areas of flat fertile soil, but barren highland meadows everywhere.
Although the water flows downwards, and the Qinghe River has carved out canyons in this highland, it will definitely flow to the lowland plains, but I don't know how long it will take.
The Ant Federation cannot follow the river to establish a stronghold until it travels a long way to a new plain before expanding. Such a transportation line is too thin. Instead of expanding like this, it would be better to have a fierce battle with the Black Fire Ant Nation and defeat them. The territory is being snatched away!
The protagonist just thought about it casually. Although he has not been happy with the Black Fire Ant Nation recently, the protagonist has not yet had the idea of fighting. The trade network within the civilized ant tribe is very important to the Ant Alliance. A civilized ant tribe’s war Civil war may completely render this trade network ineffective.
After flying in the highland area for a long time, there were no major changes in the terrain. There were quite a few groups of ant, Discobellum ant, and heart-knot ant on the ground. They were large and small, but none were particularly powerful.
This should be related to the fact that the highland areas are relatively barren and the production is scattered, which is not enough to support the establishment of a strong country.
This is not good news for the Ant Alliance, which is eager to expand. What they need is fertile soil, not barren land, even if this barren land is easily available.
After failing to find the ideal target for two consecutive days, the protagonist had to change his plan and ordered the exploration team to be divided into four teams to search for useful minerals and resources in the local area.
Given the right resources, this highland is not entirely worthless.
