Inside and outside the general food platform of the Pavement Ant Empire Army, the ants cheered up, got out of their caves, and came outdoors without warm sunlight. They packed their bags in the mud and prepared to form a team and set off for the front line.
Compared with the main front-line troops who were starving and freezing, although these transport teams were mostly composed of old, weak, sick, disabled or slaves with weak fighting ability, at least they were in the granary last night and did not have to go hungry. The temperature in Liangtai's lair was not unbearably low, so everyone was in good spirits.
The earl did not need to leave the grain platform and continued to stay in the dark underground. With the assistance of some veteran ants who acted as scribes, he quickly coordinated the departure of one transportation team after another, calculating their arrival time and the size of the food stocks of the frontline armies.
The statistical results are obviously not optimistic. The armies at the front generally only have 1-3 days of rations left, and there has even been a shortage of food.
At present, the main force of the Pavement Ant Empire Army has been divided into four large units and several smaller units after several gatherings and dispersions. According to usual practice, the earl needs to send a transport team to each of the four large armies every day to carry food and supplies for supplies. As for those small troops, they did not directly receive supplies from the grain platform, but moved closer to nearby large troops when needed.
The grain platform is 3-7 days away from each main army. Each main army will also set up a temporary grain platform in the camp to reserve grain to ensure that the transport team cannot arrive in time due to rain or other special reasons. There are certain reserves of supplies.
However, because the invasion some time ago was too smooth, the main forces advanced very fast, and the transportation teams behind could hardly keep up. When the army is winning one after another, the frontline armies can also obtain additional supplies by losing food to the enemy. Once the offensive is blocked, they will immediately fall into a food shortage situation like the Pavement Ant Imperial Army opposite Zhu Jue's army.
The earl already knew about the plight of this route army from the message delivered by "Mosquito". The grand duke of the route army blamed all the shortage of supplies on the general grain station's failure to transport the grain to the front line in time, and threatened to attack the earl's military law. engage in.
No matter how aggrieved Earl Liangtai was, he could not contradict the powerful Grand Duke. In addition to hoping that the transportation team that set off three days ago would arrive at the front line today, he could only continue to send new transportation teams to various military offices to avoid new ones. Delay.
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In the morning, when the rain stopped for a while, Zhu Jue's headquarters sent a small group of security troops outdoors.
In the cool autumn breeze, there was no sign of the Pavement Ant Imperial Army coming out of their nests to form a large-scale formation. Zhu Jue's troops quickly withdrew most of their warning soldiers, leaving only a few sentries.
The weather is gloomy, it may rain at any time, and there is a shortage of supplies. The Pavement Ant Imperial Army is waiting for supplies from the transport team and does not want to spend extra energy on a futile attack for the time being.
As for Zhu Jue, the first move he deployed in the past two days is starting to take effect!
Under the guidance of the Flying Knights, a fast force consisting of the Fly Tiger Knights, the Hunting Sickle Ants, and the Thin-legged Swift Ants had already circled behind the Pavement Ant Imperial Army and frequently attacked its transport convoys.
The transport convoys of the Pavement Ant Empire Army are not small in size. Sometimes there are as many as two to three thousand ants in one team. It is not easy for the small raiding force sent by the civilized ant alliance to completely eat these transport convoys.
However, under the flexible harassment tactics of the fast troops, the transport team of the Pavement Ant Empire Army struggled and was dragged down by six limbs. The count thought that the first batch of transportation teams would arrive today, but in fact it would take at least two and a half days for this batch of supplies to be delivered to the front line. This was exactly what Zhu Jue wanted!
After noon on the 16th, the rain started again, but the intensity was not great. The rapid troops responsible for the raid had to withdraw to a safe place to rest. The slow-moving Pavement Ant Imperial Army transport team exposed in the wilderness had to struggle to carry or use its jaws to hold the increasingly heavy packages after being wetted with water, and rushed to the nearest shelter in the rain. They drowned on the way. Lots of ants.
As dusk approached, the rain stopped again, and Zhu Jue received good news from the Flying Knight - the main force of the Rangers of the Civilized Ant Alliance successfully raided the General Food Station of the Pavement Ant Empire Army!
As early as when the Flying Knights discovered this logistics base where transportation teams frequently came and went, Zhu Jue listed it as a target for attack. For this reason, despite the tight troop strength on the front line, he also mobilized 20,000 new troops to form a special force to carry out the mission. Task.
On the one hand, this special force separated out a small group of fast troops to delay and harass the enemy's transport team, while the main force quietly approached the enemy's general grain station and had been hiding here for a day. Previously, because there were so many ants in the grain platform, a cordon was set up nearby and we did not act rashly.
This time, taking advantage of the rain, Count Liangtai of the Pavement Ant Empire Army organized a large number of ant workers into a transportation team to escort supplies to the front line. At the same time, the vigilance was relaxed.
So the Einsatzgruppe launched an assault in the rain in the afternoon.
The Liangtai defenders who were caught off guard failed to defend their positions outside the entrance and exit, and were quickly forced into underground lairs and forced to engage in street fighting. They could only retreat in front of the fierce offensive of the elite Rangers.
The Rangers of the Civilized Ant Tribe Alliance were massacring and burning the enemy's grain by covering it with hay and other materials. These hays are also a material reserve in the grain platform. They can be used as fiber raw materials and can also be fed to some herbivorous beasts. However, they were set on fire and turned into fuel.
At dusk, the Rangers completed their mission and evacuated. More than 80% of the supplies in the general food platform of the Pavement Ant Empire had been burned. The ants also suffered heavy casualties. Because they had nowhere to escape, even the count was killed. If the smoke from the incineration hadn't gotten thicker and thicker, the Rangers would definitely have wanted to continue killing everyone!
After the Rangers withdrew, the enemy troops in the grain platform still tried to put out the fire, but each one fell to death under the thick smoke. Only a few ants escaped and hurriedly reported to friendly forces everywhere. Zhu Jue also instructed the Rangers and the Flying Knights not to stop them.
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The raid on the grain platform was successful, and Zhu Jue had already begun planning a counterattack.
As the reinforcements from the Civilized Ant Alliance increased, and the unsuspecting enemy troops dispersed into several groups, the Civilized Ant Alliance had quietly gained the upper hand.
After burning a large amount of food and supplies at the enemy's general food station, the Pavilion Ant Imperial Army got the news and had to retreat to eat if they didn't want to be completely wiped out. This was the most realistic approach.
And the enemy troops are now scattered into four groups, with different distances from each other. The time when they receive the burning of the general grain platform and when they start to retreat must be inconsistent, which leaves a controllable time difference for Zhu Jue!
By seizing this time difference, Zhu Jue's troops can only face one enemy army at a time. They can take advantage of the force every time and eat the opponent at the minimum cost!
No matter how many ways you come, I will only go all the way! Zhu Jue planned to defeat them one by one quickly and win this self-defense war as quickly as possible!