On September 22, the civilized ant alliance swore to fight outside the eastern fortress group.
Zhu Jue and the commanders of the various tribes who sent troops have reached an agreement and clarified the mission and plan of this troop dispatch.
According to the plan, the initial campaign goal of this troop dispatch is to recover [Black Fire City] and the surrounding hinterland of the Black Fire Ant Country, and then the second phase of the mission will be determined depending on the situation.
If the parasitic organism is weak, it will take the opportunity to regain the entire territory of the original black fire ant country. If the main force of the parasitic army returns, set up defenses in [Black Fire City]. If the battle situation is unfavorable, you can retreat to the Black Creek Defense Line.
As for the next goal after regaining the entire Black Fire Ant Country, Zhu Jue deliberately skipped it. He still held out hope and did not want to kill all the parasites of Commander Go.
Such a goal has satisfied the appetite of the Black Fire Ant Nation, which is the most active in the Northern Expedition. Therefore, although some commanders of other races see the problem, they have no objections.
In addition, this is also a prudent plan. After all, there are so many parasitic insects, and its main force only leaves the local area in 3 days. If it decides to turn back, it will not take long for reinforcements to come back. Therefore, Zhu Jue left hundreds of thousands of troops on the Black Creek defense line to guard the back road, just in case.
The biggest worry of King "Hei Tan" of the Black Fire Ant Kingdom is that his country's old main nest [Black Fire City] may be lost again. However, other tribes supported this plan, and King "Black Tan" felt that the worst case scenario might not happen, so he agreed.
In the morning, after the civilized ant coalition forces had assembled, they passed the rope bridge over the Black Creek and gradually arrived at the north bank of the Black Creek, where they began to establish a bridgehead position.
Some lone parasitic beasts operating on the north bank of Black Creek spontaneously launched a chaotic and uncoordinated attack, and were easily driven away by the tank troops commanded by "Gun II".
After that, the parasitic ants and insect beasts began to consciously stay away from this area. Zhu Jue knew that the commander on the opposite side was aware of our army's movements and was responding rationally so as not to let the small number of parasites die in vain.
The bridgehead position was quickly initially constructed, which was a simple underground camp with a circle of trenches, and some security regiments were posted outside the trenches.
The army is still crossing the river in order. Since the passing capacity of a single rope bridge is very limited, it is expected that the entire Northern Expeditionary Army will not arrive at the north bank of Black Creek until the afternoon, and the supplies accompanying the army can only be rushed overnight.
Zhu Jue has already asked the ants from the Ant Alliance to build two other rope bridges nearby to prevent the rope bridge from becoming a bottleneck when the troops need to be withdrawn, and to facilitate subsequent transportation teams to the north bank of Black Creek.
On that day, the civilized ant coalition did not go further into the north bank of Black Creek. They just camped on the north bank to help build the bridgehead.
By nightfall, several small-scale ant mounds have been built and will continue to be expanded in the future. Soldiers of all ethnic groups began to enter temporary camps to rest after sunset. Space in the camp was tight, so they had to squeeze in.
Some soldiers of the Divine Envoy Army sprayed mite-killing chemicals in various camps. Today, the raging mite epidemic has subsided, but there are still sporadic cases of the disease. It is now during the Northern Expedition, and Zhu Jue does not want to suddenly see the mites again. An outbreak of ant mites drags down your plans.
These divine warriors take mite-killing medicine in their mouths and apply it to the entrance and exit of each nest. Sometimes they also apply it directly to some mentally ill ants as a preventive measure.
The few ants that were found to have mites on their bodies were picked out. They were all young mites. After removing the mites visible to the compound eye, they were covered with chemicals and sent to an isolated nest chamber. There are several such nests, each containing a few to dozens of unlucky eggs.
At the same time, the logistics and transportation troops are still working overtime to continuously transport supplies to the north bank. As soon as the troops and horses move, food and fodder must follow.
In this way, the first night passed in a hurry.
The next day, the sunshine was still very good, exuding the warm feeling of early autumn.
The civilized ant army began to leave the nest, assemble, and set off, with the tank troops of the Angel King Legion and the accompanying infantry legions as the vanguard, with the black fire ant army and the marching ant army guarding the flanks. The rest of the troops were in the center, and the baggage troops followed behind. , march towards [Black Fire City] together.
One of the troops remaining at the Black Creek Defense Line will cross the river today, take over the bridgehead, and stabilize the Northern Expeditionary Army's rear.
Zhu Jue and the "Rambotu II" who stayed behind completed the handover and moved with the army. He continued to ride on his double-pronged rhinoceros beetle mount, with "Tianxian" leading the imperial guards to guard him. His fly mount "Xiao Hei" was also taken with him, and was temporarily followed by other flying knights.
Sitting firmly in the middle of the army, commanding hundreds of thousands of troops from multiple ant kingdoms, Zhu Jue still had no emotion in his eyes, neither sadness nor joy, and his eyes were even a little dim, as if he was immersed in his own mind, not knowing what he was thinking about.
In the air, the flying knight once again controlled the sky. Although a large number of parasitic flying insects were driven away a few days ago, the parasitic flying insects have disappeared now. The flying knight has once again become the master of the air and the eyes and ears of the army.
In addition to the eyes and ears in the air, scouts from all races on the ground are also working hard to explore, especially the scouts from the black fire ant clan. Many veterans are very familiar with the local terrain and know some trails and dangers that are invisible in the air and difficult to find on the ground. It provides a lot of convenience for the army's actions.
The journey to [Black Fire City] would normally take the army three days on foot, that is, it would arrive on September 26th. If a fight breaks out, the time will have to be extended.
But on the second day of the Northern Expedition, the whole day on the 24th, the army did not encounter any fighting. No matter whether it was the forward or the wings, whether in the air or on the ground, no parasite army was seen coming to resist. Occasionally, after the sporadic parasites discovered the army, they quickly retreated without the intention of fighting.
In this way, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Civilized Ant Alliance spent the whole day in a boring march, just like hiking in the countryside.
At dusk, under the guidance of the black fire ant scouts, the army arrived at an abandoned auxiliary nest, which turned out to be a larger nest in the black fire ant country.
The scouts carefully inspected and determined that there were no parasites or traces of parasitic bacteria inside. In fact, this nest had not been inhabited by ants for a long time, and some necessary facilities such as drainage pipes were blocked.
Fortunately, it is not the rainy season, and it is unlikely that there will be heavy rain enough to flood the nest. After simple renovations, the army settled here for the night. Because they were in enemy-occupied territory, several small units were separated and temporary camps were built on the periphery to spend the night as an early warning at night.
The first day of the march went very smoothly without any fighting, but Zhu Jue did not take it lightly. That night, he organized a meeting of the commanders of all ethnic groups and asked all armies not to relax and to cheer up.
