In addition to peat, thanks to the unique topography and microclimate in the eastern swamp forest, there are some unique biological resources available for use.
The most typical ones are the black-clothed turtle ants that were previously conquered by the Ant Alliance. They only survive in this environment and are very rare in the outside world.
In addition, there is a local slug whose mucus can be collected and used as a special medicine to treat a unique ant disease caused by moisture.
This wet pain syndrome is very common in humid environments or during rainy seasons, and is one of the most common killers of ants next to ant mites. In the past, ant union mainly relied on fly egg drug treatment. Unfortunately, fly eggs are good for anti-inflammatory and antibiotics, but they are not very effective against this disease.
After Ant Lianguo learned the slug slime treatment method from the black turtle ants who lived here for generations, it immediately promoted it domestically and sold it in clay pots.
Ant United Kingdom has previously sold anti-inflammatory fly egg concoction, a mite repellent that was pirated from the Black Fire Ant Kingdom, and now it also sells slug mucus. This caused a new legend to spread within the civilized ant tribe - the ant alliance has obtained the very rare inheritance of the god of medicine that has been lost for a long time in this region!
Zhu Jue learned of this statement later and was dumbfounded but did not deny it. The more eye-catching the aura of the Ant United Nation is, the greater it will help his plan to unify the civilized ant tribe.
But when he learned about the talisman passed down by the God of Medicine, he was no longer calm. It was three C-shaped symbols intertwined together, like a circle with six devil horns...
Is the medical god considered by the ant civilization an ant saver or an ant killer? ! !
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After leaving the eastern border, Zhu Jue and his party moved south along the border, turned southwest when passing through a rocky desert area, and stayed at a medium-sized sub-nest in the southeastern border of the Ant Alliance for half a day, and then headed to [Mujiangzi City].
Although [Mujiangzi City] and [Wild Garlic City] were built only a short time ago, these two local specialty spices are indispensable raw materials for seasoning or preparing crow wine.
Thanks to local spice resources, both nests have developed rapidly and are now one of the few large nests with numerous ant colonies on the south bank of Qinghe River.
Especially [Mujiangzi City] City is already the largest sub-nest on the south bank of Qinghe River, with more than 200,000 ant colonies, and a large satellite sub-nest community has formed around it. Sometimes there is a nest under a huge Mujiangzi tree.
The local wood ginger collection industry is large-scale. During the harvest season, more than 100,000 ants are regularly dispatched to collect wood ginger trees in the mountainous areas. Several legions are also on guard outside to prevent indigenous tribes from outside the southern border from taking advantage of the situation.
Because some of the products made from ginger seeds and wild garlic are not suitable for long-term storage, the local downstream industry of spices has also developed.
For example, the crow wine industry in Mujiangzi City, after the rise of crow wine this year, quickly established the only crow wine production place in the country of the Ant Alliance. This is also a heavily fortified military location.
The locals use some of the ant eggs captured, traded or deliberately cultivated to raise purple gray butterfly larvae. After obtaining the crow honey, they add local fermented fruit wine, seed wine, spices and other secret recipes to prepare different flavors of crow wine, which is sold everywhere. .
For example, if the leaf-cutting ants like crow wine with the scent of spring vegetation, add some vanilla extract to it. The black fire ant kingdom and the army ant kingdom like strong-flavored crow wine, so be sure to use seed wine with a higher alcohol content that has been distilled once. The hairy forest ants and honeypot ants like crow wine with a sweet taste. In addition to adding crow honey, they also need to add additional honeydew. The Thin-footed Ants have a rather strange taste. They like to add pollen and bee excrement to crow wine. As long as you keep drinking it, the Ant Alliance will do the same!
After Zhu Jue arrived at [Mujiangzi City], he immediately met with the official in charge of the crow wine workshop, told him about the method of roasting crow wine with peat to obtain a different flavor, and asked him to dispatch ant hands to conduct experiments.
Crow wine is the flagship product of the United States' foreign trade, but it is also a contraband that is strictly prohibited from circulation and enjoyment in the country.
Here, Zhu Jue also asked some of the accompanying officials to conduct overt and covert visits and investigations. After confirmation, hundreds of ants who had secretly drank crow wine were executed at once, from the commander of the local garrison to the male ants who managed the production of crow wine, and even ordinary people. The worker ants in the winery will not spare any of them as long as they are involved.
Some of the accompanying ants didn't understand that Zhu Jue was making such a fuss, and shouldn't this beautiful drink be distributed to the nobles as a higher-end drink than honeydew?
Such doubters are not a minority in the Ant Alliance. As Crow Wine's reputation grows, more and more ants are curious about its taste and are dissatisfied with the current ban on drinking it.
It's just that Zhu Jue has always strictly controlled the production, transportation and sales of crow wine, and even set up a special agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to manage this matter. The ants in it have been strictly selected, and other departments have no power to intervene.
There are special channels for crow wine from preparation to production, transportation, and trade, so some ant nobles have no chance to get their hands on it.
Faced with the doubts of the younger generation of ant nobles this time, Zhu Jue did not explain too much. He just let them watch when the ants who had been contaminated with crow wine and were addicted were executed.
The onlookers were very shocked when they saw the ants tied up by the ant silk, struggling in agony, with ant mucus flowing out of every cavity in their bodies.
After learning that this symptom was due to addiction to crow wine, and that it would occur once the consumption of crow wine was stopped, and that long-term intake of crow wine would quickly weaken the body, most of the ants understood the intentions of the great angel king.
As for those young ant nobles who were stubborn and could not resist temptation, they had also lost hope of further promotion in the future. Zhu Jue was on the side and had ordered the magic worker ant as the secretary to record the reactions of all these young ant nobles in the information package.
Zhu Jue stayed in [Mujiangzicheng] for many days. The temptation of crow wine was too great. He specially set up an organization to monopolize the crow wine industry. Although it prevented other ants outside the organization from getting involved, within the organization, in just a few months, Most of the ant officials have fallen.
Compared with ordinary worker ants who are not allowed to come into contact with crow wine as long as they are ordered to do so, workers who violate the ban mostly taste crow wine accidentally and cannot resist the temptation.
Many of the ant nobles who committed crimes came into contact with Crow Wine on their own initiative. Among the few officials who did not join in the crime, the protagonist was very pleased to find that they were basically magic workers.
So Zhu Jue severely rectified the crow wine management department here, executed and replaced a large number of officials, and transferred a large number of magical workers from other regions to fill the vacancies.
Maybe the magic worker ants will gradually be unable to resist the temptation in the future, and Zhu Jue can't cure the root cause, but as long as he rules the Ant Alliance, crow wine, a poison that attracts ants, will not be popular in an open and honest way.
