Winter has passed halfway, and cold waves no longer come frequently, leaving a glimmer of hope for the lives in this world that are not hibernating but are still struggling.
It was already mid-January. This year's New Year, Zhu Jue spent the new year in [Bun Bread City] in a state of consciousness. The winter camp was in a panic because of Zhu Jue's disappearance. This year was the only time in recent years that Zhu Jue was missing. There was no New Year's banquet this year, and Zhu Jue did not hold one after his return.
However, according to the report from the Pavement Ant Messenger, the remaining subjects of the Ant Alliance still held a banquet as usual. This can be regarded as a cultural characteristic of the Ant Alliance.
On January 19, Zhu Jue, escorted by a small team of paving ant warriors, walked for three days and suddenly appeared in [Black Fire City] today.
Although Zhu Jue had previously sent a messenger to warn of his upcoming arrival, when he actually arrived, it still caused quite a stir.
Not long after Zhu Jue entered a temporary accommodation, King "Heitan" came after hearing the news.
After Zhu Jue's consciousness returned to his original body, he regained his night vision ability. At a glance, he could see that King "Black Carbon" was full of injuries: there were traces of healing on his compound eyes, and there were fresh scars on his tentacles and joints, making him look very embarrassed.
King "Black Charcoal" is the representative of the black fire ant domestic faction that supports Zhu Jue. Zhu Jue is naturally concerned about his current situation and is busy asking what's going on.
King "Heitan"'s tentacles were full of grievances. He didn't use information packets, but slowly sent the messages one by one. After Zhu Jue listened patiently, he finally knew what happened during this period:
After the "Celestial Immortal" had to send messengers to [Black Fire City] and other places to announce that the God Envoy King was missing, and asked garrisons from various places to assist in the search, it caused quite a stir in [Black Fire City].
Especially after a full month passed, there was still no news from Zhu Jue, which caused a gradual imbalance among the various races and factions in [Black Fire City].
As the nominal supreme commander of the civilized ant alliance, Zhu Jue's position is actually not very stable. He relied on checks and balances and the title of Divine Envoy King to obtain this temporary position, and he relied on constant victories to stabilize himself. status.
But the foundations of him and the Ant Alliance were too shallow after all, and they were far inferior to thousand-year-old powers such as the Leafcutter Ant Nation and the Black Fire Ant Nation. Within the civilized ant tribe, he still has many opponents or potential opponents.
The Black Fire Ant Nation used to have a lot of disagreements with the Ant Alliance. Because the restoration of the nation relied entirely on the coalition of civilized ant tribes, and King "Black Carbon" has become a die-hard supporter of Zhu Jue, the Black Fire Ant Nation has been very aggressive in its external affairs in recent times. He is more supportive of Zhu Jue.
However, in the meeting of kings in Black Fire Ant's country, there are also many opponents who cannot forget their past glory and hatred. Even though Zhu Jue instructed the "Hei Tan" king to support him and the "big brother" king who had a good relationship, they were slowly eliminated. It is impossible to completely eliminate these opposition forces in a short period of time.
Among the other tribes stationed in [Black Fire City], such as the commanders of the Army Ant tribe and the Thin-footed Ant tribe, there are also opponents of Zhu Jue. Some other ant tribes are against Zhu Jue's top commander. The title is not convincing either.
After Zhu Jue disappeared for a long time, his supporters were leaderless, but his opponents gradually united together somehow, and the balance of power between the two sides began to become unbalanced.
[Black Fire City] The Thin-legged Ant Clan took the lead in attacking, saying that in the war after the spring of next year, the civilized ant coalition cannot be without a supreme commander, and a new supreme commander must be elected to replace Zhu Jue, and expressed that the Thin-legged Ant Clan As one of the most powerful ant tribes, the commander of the Thin-footed Ant Tribe should serve as the supreme commander.
The generals of the God Envoy King's legion and King "Black Charcoal" and other supporters immediately expressed their opposition, but then a dispute broke out within the King's meeting of the Black Fire Ant Kingdom. The opposition began to criticize King "Black Charcoal" and tried to make Black Fire Ant The king of the country became the new supreme commander. As a result, the Black Fire Ant Nation, currently Zhu Jue's biggest support force, also fell into civil strife.
The disputes in the Black Fire Ant Kingdom's King's Meeting were not civilized. The aggressive kings even started fighting with each other, as if they were the parliament of a treasure island. The older King "Hei Tan" was no match for the young opposition kings, and was attacked by a group again, and was injured.
The former leader of the remnants of the Northern Expeditionary Army and the "elder brother" who was good friends with Zhu Jue, was expelled from the meeting of kings and deprived of the title of king by the opposition forces on the grounds that he belonged to the vassal ant tribe.
Also deprived of their title of king were the other two male ant leaders of the remaining Northern Expeditionary Army. Even within the remnants of the Northern Expeditionary Army, as the "Eldest Brother" lost power in the sovereign country, the remaining opposition forces of the "Flying Eagle" also emerged, showing hostility towards Zhu Jue and the Ant Alliance.
The old "eldest brother" had tried his best to suppress the remaining "flying eagles" and even fell ill.
After the meeting of the kings of the Black Fire Ant Kingdom fell into civil strife, the forces opposing Zhu Jue gained momentum and tended to merge. Their first goal was to get all the tribes to agree to elect a new supreme commander. Compete for this position. The top general stationed in [Black Fire City] in the Divine Envoy King's legion is not high enough, and it is difficult to resist for a while.
If the news of Zhu Jue's return had not been transmitted back to [Black Fire City] at the most critical moment, allowing the forces supporting Zhu Jue to counterattack, I am afraid that by now Zhu Jue's title of supreme commander of the civilized ant tribe's coalition would have been given to other ants. .
Zhu Jue was furious after hearing this. He had heard about the chaos in [Black Fire City] from the Pavement Ant messenger before, but he never thought that the trouble would be so serious.
Throughout the last year, he led the coalition of civilized ant tribes to fight in the south and north, and protected the black fire ant country from the tide of parasitic invasion. Going back further, he once saved the leaf-cutter ant country and owed nothing to other countries, but what he got in exchange was such "betrayal".
Zhu Jue thinks this is "betrayal"! After returning from [Bun City], Zhu Jue's mentality changed. His sense of urgency made him no longer willing to tolerate it, but to race against time to integrate the forces within the civilized ant tribe and eliminate the opposing forces.
After Zhu Jue and King "Hei Tan" completed their spying, he ordered King "Hei Tan" to do this. After King "Heitan" left, he called in the local generals of the Envoy King's army to arrange the arrangements.
Zhu Jue also asked the pavement ant warriors who protected him to act as messengers and rush to nearby nests to mobilize more pavement ant warriors to come to [Black Fire City] as soon as possible to strengthen his own strength.
After arranging all this and visiting his old "eldest brother" who was dying of illness, Zhu Jue made up his mind!
On this day, the ants, the leaders of various tribes and factions in [Black Fire City], received the convening order of the civilized ant alliance military meeting issued in the name of the God Envoy King!
