With the coalition of civilized ant tribes all regaining the underground lair of [Black Fire City], the war against the Destroyer in the winter has come to an end for the time being.
The Destroyers still control several small and medium-sized nests near [Black Fire City] that are not connected to underground tunnels, but they are no longer able to threaten the main nest of the Black Fire Ant Kingdom, and the civilized ant coalition will definitely not be able to continue to fight back in the cold winter. Both sides Just stay that way until nature allows them to break the deadlock.
On the underground Great Wall defense line, although the Destroyer's offensive has not stopped, the offensive has become weaker and weaker after the radar destroyers realized that they could not achieve results. It is a blessing that the civilized ants did not suffer the same bad luck as last year this winter.
Moreover, this was the first time in winter that Zhu Jue's arrangement made the Destroyer return without success. This allowed him to finally see a glimmer of real hope, the hope of victory.
So in Zhu Jue's eyes, even spring seemed to have arrived early, and the whole world became warmer.
Spring has really arrived this year. At least after the first warm air mass from the south arrived, it was sunny for several days. As a result, the temperature rose significantly, and the winter jasmine flowers were the first to bloom.
Next to the river beach of [Golden Beach City], there is a dense bush of winter jasmine. The small goose-yellow flowers proudly release their beauty towards the sun. There are already a few bees busy among the flowers. Xu is unwilling to live up to these flowers. Sweet spring.
Like bees, ants are the first creatures to become active. These two social animals have shelters to overwinter, and naturally welcome spring earlier than those species that survive the winter in the form of eggs and wait to hatch.
[Golden Beach City], this small ant nest not far from [Xinyang City], the capital of the North Bank of the Ant Alliance, is now very much like a satellite city. The number of ants living here is only over 10,000, and the food supply Supplies are heavily dependent on other nest supplies.
This is a nest with a severely specialized industry. Apart from the nurse ants that take care of the queen and young ants in the nest, as well as the maintenance workers, almost all the ants working on the ground in this nest belong to two major industries: gold mining and grazing.
Gold mining has always been the pillar industry of [Golden Beach City].
This nest originally belonged to the Ant Clan. At that time, the Ants were still vassals of the powerful Red Fire Ant Nation. They once had a conflict with the Ant Alliance, but they soon surrendered. The fate of the ants was that the Belly Ant Clan was eventually attacked by its original overlord, thus becoming the first vassal ant tribe conquered by the Ant Alliance in this new world, and the [Golden Beach City] also fell under the rule of the Ant Alliance. .
As the name suggests, the river beach near [Jinshatan City] - Jinshatan - is able to deposit a lot of sand gold brought by the Qinghe River from the upper reaches every year due to its terrain. Although Zhu Jue has never understood why gold is still the hard currency in the world of ant civilization, it does not prevent him from using this setting to seek benefits.
The placer gold produced in [Golden Beach City] was unearthed by countless ants on the river beach, and it played a huge exchange function in the early trade of the Ant Alliance. Although the trading demand for alluvial gold has dropped a lot due to the sales of crow honey, the gold mining industry in [Golden Beach City] still maintains a large scale, and large quantities of alluvial gold are regularly transported from here to [Xinyang City] and even [opening up wasteland] City] storage.
Now is the time when spring has just begun. Even if the surface of the river is frozen in winter, the river water underneath is still flowing. The heavy sand gold has accumulated here bit by bit throughout the winter, so every spring is the time when gold mining is most efficient. At this time, there are still some ice floating on the Qinghe River, and there are still ice layers in many places on the shore. However, the golden beach is empty and sunny, and there is no ice anymore.
The ant miners who have just hibernated all winter, including big-headed ants, pavement ants, abdominal ants, and slave ants of various races, are already working. They go to work every day for three days before the weather warms up. They take turns to step onto the cold beach soaked by the river water, and rummage through the large and small golden sands.
This job is not as easy as imagined. There are many quartz particles in the sand, which are more dazzling than real sand gold in the sun, which will always interfere with the ants' judgment. Ant miners must touch it with their tentacles to confirm whether they have found gold or whether they are just happy.
The gold dust is also heavy. The small particles of gold sand may require ants to use all their strength to carry them, and the size of these gold dusts is obviously not enough for multiple ants to work together to lift them.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Such high-intensity work, coupled with the cold and humid environment, will soon make the ants freeze or become paralyzed due to fatigue. Fortunately, they all have experience and know that they must rush to a dry and high place to bask in the sun when their movements begin to slow down. The sun, and the ants responsible for logistics prepared some fermented drinks for the miners to replenish their energy.
At this time, the miners may be envious of the herdsmen in the same nest. The local herdsmen ants are mostly red forest ants and abdominal ants. Although these herdsmen are not as relaxed as the miners for most of the year, at least for now, the herdsmen ants are still It's not time to start work.
Before winter last year, herder ants were busy collecting aphid eggs. They hid a large number of eggs underground in the ant nests. They had to wait until these eggs hatched in the spring before the herd could roughly return to last year's size.
Of course, some female aphids were also carried underground to overwinter, as were scale insects. Some adults and nymphs were sheltered, but they also had to wait until it got warmer before they could move back to the plants. After all, most plants were still there at this time. There are no new shoots coming out, there is no fresh juice in them, and the herds cannot find enough food.
Animal husbandry is also a traditional industry in [Golden Beach City]. In the past, the ant family grazed brown wax scales here, but the indifferent honeydew of this insect has long been eliminated, and this insect has also been kicked out. Their living space is also crowded by large groups of aphids and scale insects, and they are almost becoming endangered insects.
Although [Golden Beach City] does not produce higher value crow honey - crow honey is only produced in a few well-protected designated nests. But the honeydew here is still very popular at home and abroad. Crow honey is forbidden in China, and honeydew is the most luxurious and wonderful drink. In cross-border trade, the total export volume of honeydew is also much greater than that of crow honey, although the total export value difference between the two is not that big.
With the arrival of spring, [Golden Beach City], which has been indifferent all winter, gradually comes to life. However, the ants living here do not know that a strange thing will happen here soon!
