The large-scale battle continued until dusk. The parasitic ants struggled to repair several pontoon bridges and continued their attack. However, the civilized ant coalition forces that restored order have rearranged their defense lines and gradually restored fire support. The parasitic creatures had no chance to take advantage of them and eventually retreated.
However, the small-scale battle on the south bank continued until nightfall. After the scattered parasites regained their composure, they initially tried to unite to fight. After seeing that there was no hope of victory, they desperately hid and infiltrated under the instructions of their brains, which brought consequences to the coalition forces. No small trouble. Until night, there were still a large number of troops dragging nets in the wild to search for parasites that had slipped through the net.
Zhu Jue had to urgently order the reinforcements of the Divine Envoy King's Army, which were about to arrive at the war zone, not to join together for the time being, but to station themselves within a day's journey from the rear and establish a blockade to prevent sporadic parasitic organisms from escaping into the rear and causing their spread.
The battles on the south bank were the most brutal in the east and west fortress groups.
The trapped parasites in the eastern fortress group ignited the ammunition in the fort due to misoperation, and a big explosion blew them all away, which also caused a lot of casualties to the attacking God-Emissary King warriors.
The battle in the western fortress group lasted longer. "Gun II" finally invested the troops of all three legions, and continued to gather the chaotic and independent forces in the fortress before completing the clearing operation in the first half of the night.
After counting, it was found that there were more than 4,000 parasitic ants in the western fortress group, half of which were previously latent infected.
Others were newly infected ants that were controlled by parasitic hyphae that quickly penetrated the mycorrhizae into their brains. An autopsy revealed that these parasitic mycorrhizae had become merely entangled with the ant's brain.
This method of parasitism does not require an incubation period and is faster, but the life of the controlled organism can only last a few days. Without brain control, parasitic bacteria would never choose this parasitic method that is not conducive to their own reproduction, but in a fierce war, this method is obviously more efficient.
The Allied Forces of the Civilized Ant Tribe, and even the Divine Envoy King Legion that had dealt with the parasitic fungus, discovered this ability of the parasitic fungus for the first time. Through dissecting the corpses, they roughly analyzed its principle.
The battle losses on this day were heavy, and Zhu Jue could not sleep a wink until late at night. Since some legions or teams were still performing tasks outside, the final casualty data had not been compiled.
Before Zhu Jue took a break, the compiled data showed that tens of thousands of soldiers from the Angel King's army had died, mostly on the frontline battlefields and the western fortress group.
Many of these victims were carefully cultivated technical talents, such as tank soldiers and artillerymen. This made Zhu Jue very angry. He also vented his emotions on "Go II" and stipulated that in the future, unless there is an urgent need, no one will be allowed to surrender. Tank crewmen leave their mounts and act as infantry.
In addition, there are at least 20,000 God-Emissary King warriors who are injured or infected with parasitic bacteria and need treatment. About one-quarter to one-fifth of them will die or be too disabled to return to the army. The rest You will also need to rest for a few days to a few weeks.
It can be said that the loss of the God's Envoy King's army in this trembling battle is really heavy. Other civilized ant armies also suffered considerable losses. The black fire ant army, which fought side by side with the Angel King's army until the end, suffered a higher proportion of battle losses than the Angel King's army. The losses of the army of marching ants and the completely different blind leaf-cutting ants were also high. The proportion is not small. On the contrary, most of the defeated ant armies suffered minor losses.
But this battle also achieved its tactical purpose. At least it clarified the insidious tactics of the parasitic brain and prevented the parasitic army from taking the opportunity to break through the Black Creek defense line. After making targeted arrangements, the tactical threat of the parasitic army will be greatly reduced in the future.
At the same time, Zhu Jue also took the opportunity to extend his tentacles to other armies of various ethnic groups through supervisors, thereby collecting intelligence and influencing their decision-making.
The Black Fire Ant Country and the Leafcutter Ant Country were not very enthusiastic about the supervisors, so they transferred some male or female ants at the squad leader level who had suffered serious losses in their armies to serve, and there was a serious shortage.
But Zhu Jue was very concerned. He summoned a large number of members of the staff around him and ordered a group of staff officers and staff trainees who were urgently airlifted by giant dragonflies from the rear to join them. After his own emergency training, they took up their posts. talk.
————
Back in the early morning of the day when the war ended, Zhu Jue had just fallen asleep.
Just as his consciousness sank to the deepest level and he entered deep sleep, the strange call sounded again.
In his sleep, Zhu Jue's consciousness could clearly hear the content of the call, which roughly translates to:
"God Lord! Return!"
"God Lord! Return!"
"God Lord! Return!"
Zhu Jue, who was disturbed in his sleep, turned over tiredly. These calls stopped suddenly, and all the flow of consciousness returned to calm!
————
After dawn the next day, the exhausted Zhu Jue was awakened by the "celestial beings" and other imperial guards.
Zhu Jue stretched his legs with his limbs, but his mind was still groggy. Only 2 hours of sleep was not enough for him to fully recover. This was very different from most other ants who only needed to take a nap from time to time.
After having a simple breakfast while half awake, Zhu Jue entered the joint meeting room again. Over the past few days, he had spent most of his time in this dimly lit and small nest room, and he was almost numb.
Most of the commanders from other races have arrived, and some commanders who live in the eastern or western fortress groups have not yet arrived. They are expected to arrive soon on flying mounts.
At this time, the staff who assisted Zhu Jue had sorted out some of the information collected after dawn and passed it to Zhu Jue through their tentacles.
"Um!?"
Zhu Jue found a very new piece of information from a large number of small-scale battle reports on eradicating lurking parasites on the south bank. This refreshed his mind and quickly sobered him up:
The parasites are showing signs of moving out of camp!
Zhu Jue immediately ordered the flying knights to increase their investigation efforts, and gathered intelligence from many sources. At about 9 o'clock in the morning, it was finally confirmed.
The signs of parasitic organisms moving to camp are already obvious. A large number of parasitic ants are filling up the original underground nests. A group of vanguard troops have already set off to explore the way east along the direction of the Black Creek, that is, downstream. The rest of the troops are also leaving the nests. Rally.
Zhu Jue was very puzzled and continued to move to the lower reaches of the Black River. He passed the area where the eastern fortress group was located and walked for half a day to Qinghe River. The terrain there was muddy and narrow, which was not a good terrain for deploying large troops.
Why are so many parasites crowded there? Could it be that they can't even cross Black Creek? Still want to cross the vast Qinghe River?
Across the Qinghe River is the territory of the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom. Due to the Qinghe River natural moat, the defense there has always been weak. Although Zhu Jue did not believe that parasitic organisms could cross the Qinghe River, he ordered the flying knights to keep a close watch just in case and sent a warning letter to the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom!
