The rain may have continued all night.
After returning to the safe and warm underground camp, the well-prepared civilized ant coalition can take a good rest.
Zhu Jue told the sentries on guard at the entrances and exits to report to him immediately if the enemy attacked in the dark overnight after the rain stopped. In the end, Zhu Jue did not receive the report. Maybe the rain never stopped, or maybe the enemy did not take the opportunity to attack after a short pause.
Several meters deep underground, in the temporary dormitory where Zhu Jue lived alone, even if Zhu Jue, with his keen senses, pressed his tentacles against the earth wall, he could not feel the vibration caused by the falling raindrops on the ground. Such vibrations were too slight, and were quickly eliminated after being filtered by the thick strata.
In short, it was a good thing that the enemy did not launch an attack. Zhu Jue could also take a good rest and relax his brain that had been tense all day.
————
About three days to the north and east of [Liu San City], compared to the comfortable camp conditions of the civilized ant coalition, the scene here was chaotic and uncomfortable.
This is a tree nest territory that originally belonged to the leaf-cutter ants, but now, as the indigenous people were expelled and killed, the dilapidated tree nests have been abandoned.
However, below the tree nest, near the roots of the locust tree, there are newly dug holes and cone-shaped soil slopes. This is a newly built nest with a typical pavement ant style.
This newly built nest, or logistics base, was as quiet as a dead nest in the miserable autumn rain.
As a battle-hardened nation, the Pavement Ant Empire fully understands the importance of setting up a food platform close to the front line. Due to its reasonable location and distance, this new nest has become the closest and largest one to the front line. Grain table.
Normally, this lair wouldn't be so quiet.
Just two or three days ago, this hastily built grain platform nest was suddenly flooded with ants that were two or three times more than the designed capacity. Most of them were brought by nearby transport teams to take shelter from the rain, and there were also a large amount of food supplies. ——The nest is already overcrowded!
If you don't go deep into the nest at this time, you won't realize that there are so many ants hibernating here, quietly waiting for the end of the rain.
The person who manages this grain platform is an earl.
Among the Pavement Ant Imperial Army, the paradox is that they both know the importance of logistics, but also despise logistics, an indirect link of combat. In the Old Pavement Ant Empire Army, in the army commanded by the Duke, the noble officers responsible for logistics generally only had the title of Viscount or Baron. Even today, with the proliferation of noble titles, the highest logistics commander is an earl.
At this time, the count and hundreds of pavement ant warriors were crowded into a small nest room. All other nest rooms were also so crowded, filled with ants and supplies, and even fresh feces and urine scattered around. The breath - this is excreted by ants who can't hold it back. At this time, they can't even clear the excrement out of the nest.
It was not the earl's original intention to huddle with the guards. Unlike those stupid office ants who like to cuddle together, male male pavement ants, as nobles, are more intelligent and need more private space.
On the battlefield, resting space is a very scarce resource, and only at the level of Marquis can one obtain a certain amount of independent space. In this narrow lair of the grain platform, a count should not have extravagant hopes.
Moreover, the autumn rain is now miserable, the surface temperature has plummeted to ten degrees, and the underground is also cooling down. Living alone may not be comfortable. Surrounded by hundreds of ants, the count at least didn't have to worry about the cold - that's how he comforted himself.
In fact, this count once held the highest title of marquis, but in a battle with the Destroyer's guerrilla forces commanded by him, he failed to complete the campaign objectives, and the tens of thousands of troops under his command were almost wiped out. This was his The last major setback and humiliation in military career.
This defeat would not have deprived him of his first-level title, but the mid-level and senior officers who were supposed to be able to evacuate safely had bad luck when they retreated under the cover of the escort and ran into a group of people who had made a detour at an unknown time. The destroyer, who lost many counts and viscounts.
The pavement ant nobles can tolerate the battle losses of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of ordinary soldiers, but they cannot tolerate the innocent deaths of middle- and high-level nobles. These middle- and high-level nobles often focus on preservation when the war is unfavorable, and the mortality rate is much lower than that of ordinary soldiers. .
Everything has its pros and cons, and the approach of the Pavement Ant Imperial Army has preserved many outstanding commanders. But it is precisely because of this that the Pavement Ant Empire is now overflowing with titles and the ratio of generals to soldiers is extremely disparate.
So this unlucky pavement ant male had to accept punishment because he had lost too many nobles. He was demoted from marquis to earl and was assigned to manage the grain platform.
The count is still loyal to his duties. Like Zhu Jue, he is also paying close attention to the changes in rain.
Autumn rain is different from thunderstorms in summer. It is the result of the intersection of cold front and warm and moist air mass, and does not cause sudden changes in air pressure. Ant antennae are sensitive to changes in air pressure, but they cannot predict the trend of cold fronts, so they can only continuously send out ants to detect the situation outside.
This is not an easy job. The upper part of Liangtai's nest is as cold as the ground, and the feet are always wet and covered with cold mud, which will quickly absorb the heat from the ants' bodies.
The several groups of ants that came outside the nest saw no signs of stopping the rain, and left behind several corpses that were frozen and stiff and eventually died of loss of body temperature.
The count still insisted on sending out a small force to check the weather in about 20 to 30 minutes. He didn't care about the death data of the worker ants at all. The workers assigned to the logistics transport team were old and weak worker ants. Even if all of them died, it would not affect the combat effectiveness of the frontline troops. .
Finally, on the morning of the next day, September 16, around 7 o'clock, there was light in the sky. Even though it was still gloomy, it showed that the sun behind the dark clouds had risen.
The rain stopped after sunrise, the ground was still wet, and the dark clouds had not dispersed. The rain might fall again at any time, but finally there was some time to go out and do some activities.
The earl had ignored the threat of bad weather and urged the transport team sheltered in the Liangtai lair to set off immediately to transport the grass shreds filled with food to the front line to supply the main troops who were short of food and drink.
This supply should have been in place yesterday evening, but the rain disrupted the supply plan, and the soldiers on the front line had been starving all night. If he fails to deliver the grain immediately after the rain stops, the earl knows what punishment awaits him!
This time, it’s not just as simple as stripping away the first-level noble title!
