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For thousands of years, the surface of the Qinghe River, which has been flowing continuously, often has various floating objects in addition to thousands of waves.
Especially in the flood season that just passed, the grass and driftwood in the upper reaches were washed away by the flood and flowed down the river in the yellow and turbid water. They were not only scattered on the water surface, but also accumulated in some river bends, like It's a mass of debris.
At that time, a thick layer of foam was continuously washed onto the river bank, and gradually shattered under the impact. It was thick like sputum gathered together, and when it disappeared, it was like the breathing of the dying.
During the previous flood season, the busy water transportation had been suspended, but as the river surface became clear again, a new peak transportation season was quietly coming.
The protagonist stands on the top of the tall anthill tower in [Pioneer City] and looks out over the river. There, the first walnut fleet is entering the harbor after the flood season.
I saw dozens of walnut boats connected by ropes. The walnut shells on the surface had been soaked for many days and had dark green algae attached to them. There were no sails hanging on it, and it was completely flowing down the water.
On the walnut boat, you can see the burrowing ants belonging to the black fire ant kingdom. They are lying on the surface of the boat cautiously, clinging tightly with their six limbs to avoid falling into the water. At the same time, they use their big jaws to control the long poles. , constantly pushing the walnut fleet away from the mud and sand on the river bank to prevent stranding.
This is a fleet transporting coal from the country of black fire ants. The "noble" and life-saving black fire ants will not go out to punt the boats themselves. Historically, the escorting work, which has a very high mortality rate when falling into the water, has been left to the client ants. clan.
This time it was the turn of the burrowing ants.
These burrowing ants did not know how many corpses fell into the water and were washed away by the river along the way. According to past experience, it is normal for one-third of their comrades to lose one third on the way.
The protagonist doesn't care about the life and death of the burrowing ants. The black fire ants in their overlord country don't care about the mortality rate, and he doesn't need to. He only cares about the arrival of this batch of coal.
Although they have been at odds with the Black Fire Ant Country for a long time, the trade volume between the two sides has been increasing recently. The nobles of the Black Fire Ant Country can no longer live without the sweet honeydew and the more tempting crow honey, and the underground iron-making blast furnaces of the Ant Alliance are also greedily devouring ship after ship of coal.
A medium-sized walnut ship can carry just enough fuel to fire a blast furnace once.
As the territory of the Ant Alliance expanded, the demand for iron tools and weapons also increased. The 18 blast furnaces currently located in [Xinyang City], [February Lan City] and [Tuohuang City] would consume 6 shipments of coal every day if they were operated at full capacity.
This is not even a terrible consumption. You must know that 12 loads of coal are enough for a fire to burn for an entire winter, because the fire needs to burn for a long time to provide heat. Even in the Ant Alliance, currently only some large sub-nests can use anthracite as fire fuel, and most small sub-nests still have to use the smoky firewood stored in them.
In order to supply the blast furnaces and fires, the walnut boats from the black fire ant country are constantly flowing on the river every day. The snail shells filled with honeydew and crow nectar, which are as numerous as river beach gravel, are transported by the black fire ants returning by the land. The vassals and slaves of the Fire Ant Kingdom were brought back.
Recently, the Fire Ant Country has significantly increased its coal imports. As long as the Black Fire Ant Country has enough coal to deliver, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will have enough honeydew and crow honey to pay for it.
All this is to prevent the booming coal trade from suddenly stopping. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Ministry of Industry are required to stockpile enough coal for one month in addition to the current normal production. At the same time, the production capacity of the charcoal kilns is required to increase to enough to support three One-third of the blast furnaces are fired continuously.
This is an arduous task, which means that in a short period of time, the United Nations will need to import more than 180 additional ships of coal. This amount will even cause problems with the payment of honeydew.
"Xiaohua", the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has calculated that the domestic consumption of honeydew cannot be stopped, the trading of coarse salt from the hairy forest ants cannot be stopped, and there are also some important trades that cannot be suspended.
If coal imports continue to expand, the current honeydew production in the United States will be in short supply.
In order to cope with the need for coal imports, the Ant Alliance began to make a fuss about the honeydew provided to the Black Fire Ant Nation.
The honeydew that was originally concentrated 3 times became 2 times concentrated. The concentrated honeydew in some snail shells was mixed with honey, juice or fermented sweet water. All large snail shells were replaced by small and medium-sized snail shells.
The nobles in charge of trade in the Black Fire Ant Country protested against the change of snail shells to small and medium sizes, but "Xiaohua" pointed out that medium-sized snail shells were generally used in the past. When the medium-sized snail shells were not enough, large-sized snail shells were used. It was the Black Fire Ant Nation that took advantage! After taking advantage for so long, it’s time to balance it out and accept some small snail shells!
The other party was speechless, but he must have put this account on the head of the Ant Alliance. Fortunately, the relationship between the two parties has reached a low point, and they don't care about this negative impact.
As for mixing water and other things, the black fire ants didn't seem to notice, and they kept boasting that a certain kind of honeydew mixed with one-third of fermented juice was "delicious"...
…
The protagonist stopped his reverie and continued to look at the river.
On the river, the coal fleet from the Black Fire Ant Country has approached the river bend near Pioneer City.
This fleet will be received by [Pioneering City] in order. The 12 giant dragonflies that have been waiting in [Pioneer City] for a long time rise into the sky under the eyes of the protagonist.
The divine worker ant commander on the back of the giant dragonfly also raised its forelimbs to signal to the divine envoy king. The protagonist also raised his forelimbs in response, not sure if the other party saw it.
The group of giant dragonflies quickly flew away and arrived on the river. The breeze is gentle today, which is good weather that will not affect flying.
The giant dragonfly came over the walnut boat, lowered its height, and strong ropes made of a mixture of ant silk and hemp fiber hung down.
The burrowing ants on the boat immediately took the hanging rope and tied it to the rope of the walnut boat.
When the connection was completed, the giant dragonflies flew hard towards the shore, and more than a dozen walnut boats were pulled slowly along the current, gradually approaching the shore at an angle of 30 degrees.
The shore is a gentle beach suitable for beaching. There are thousands of pavement ants, burrowing ants, red forest ants and other ants waiting on it, and there are also 4 medium-sized scarab beetles among them.
The giant dragonflies threw the rope down at a low altitude, and the ants immediately took it and worked together with the beetles to pull the walnut fleet onto the beach.
The protagonist stopped watching. Next, the ants would unload the coal and then discard these disposable walnut boats nearby. Perhaps when a new pontoon is built in the future, those walnut boats that have not yet rotted will come in handy again.
The protagonist has returned to his palace in [Pioneer City] and secretly met an ant.
