Among the three battles that day, the one that broke out the latest - the Battle of the Seven Tribes - was indeed the largest battle, the longest one, and the one with the most ant tribes participating.
In this battle, the Maulin Ant Expeditionary Force invested more than 30,000 troops, which was second only to the detachment that attacked the Destroyers in terms of strength. However, compared to its opponents, it was at a very obvious disadvantage in terms of strength.
The goal of this hairy forest ant expedition is to set up a water source near the forest and the seven indigenous ant tribes where the water source is located.
Water is a very important resource in the Eastern Highlands. While most ant colonies can survive solely on dew and groundwater, an abundant water source is obviously very useful for plants like pyrethrum. There is also more abundant food near water sources, which can support larger ant tribes.
The white-flowered pyrethrum grows more luxuriantly near several open water sources in the eastern highlands, and the ant tribes it shelters are often more powerful. All large indigenous tribes, without exception, live near water.
The water source targeted by the Hairy Forest Ant Expedition is also the closest water source to the foothold woods. The water source itself is located under a huge rock. The spring water seeping out of the cracks in the rock slowly converges downward along the nearly vertical surface of the rock, and drips drop by drop on a stalactite in the indentation formed between the rock and the ground. , gradually formed a pool on the ground support that was only the size of a table tennis table and less than half a meter deep.
But even with such a seemingly small water source, the vegetation within a few tens or even hundreds of meters of it is shaded, and it is obviously more prosperous than other places where most of the gravel is exposed. The closer you get to the water source, the denser the vegetation. There is even a big tree growing next to the water source. The roots of the tree penetrate deeply into the soil, and some roots penetrate into the crevices of the rocks.
And near this water source, there are seven tribes of indigenous ants living. These seven indigenous ant tribes are considered to be medium-to-large tribes in the Eastern Highlands in terms of size, and they can dominate even outside the water source area. However, in the involution environment of the water source area, there is only one tribe among the seven major ant tribes. They can maintain a state of dynamic balance. Although wars have broken out frequently, the overall balance has not been broken for hundreds of years.
Even the Destroyers had no intention of making a move here after being broken into pieces. Their strategy was to gradually conquer the eastern highlands from weak to strong. The indigenous ants in Shuiyuan were the most powerful and had the most abundant weapons of white-flowered pyrethrum. The location is the furthest action target.
The Hairy Forest Ant Expeditionary Force did not have such concerns. They themselves also relied on pyrethrum weapons. Therefore, seizing a water source suitable for cultivating pyrethrum would have more advantages than disadvantages. Therefore, they were impatient and sent a detachment to attack, but ignored of the difficulties involved.
Although the Hairy Forest Ant Expeditionary Force did not obviously despise the Destroyer, its attitude towards the indigenous ants in the Eastern Highlands was extremely contemptuous. After all, in several previous battles, the Hairy Forest Ant Expeditionary Force had mastered the white-flowered pyrethrum weapon. They defeated the indigenous tribes one after another with overwhelming force.
Therefore, this time, the number of troops they sent was not large, but the commander was still confident of victory.
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Among the seven indigenous ant tribes surrounding the water source, starting from the direction from the South where the Hairy Forest Ant Expeditionary Force comes, the first one they come into contact with will be the electric ant tribe (Golden Wort's ants), and then proceed clockwise. It is a tribe of Japanese ant, Pharaoh ant (little house ant), black turtle ant, lily ant, speeding arrow ant and sickle hunter ant.
Except for the largest Japanese ant tribe, which only has more than 20,000 ant colonies, each of the other tribes has about 50,000 or more ant colonies, especially the Pharaoh ant tribe, which has a total of 200,000 ant colonies.
Facing the seven major indigenous ant tribes with a total population of 400,000 and nearly 300,000 combatable troops, the detachment commander of the Hairy Forest Ant Expeditionary Army only has one-tenth of his troops. Without reinforcements, Under the circumstances, the safest approach should have been to defeat each of the seven tribes.
However, the arrogant commander of the Hairy Forest Ant Expeditionary Force directly ordered his troops to be divided into three groups, with more than 10,000 soldiers in each group, to launch active attacks on the tribes of electric ants, Japanese ant species, and ant tribes. According to the plan of the commander of the Maori Forest Ant Expedition, after defeating the first three tribes, the army would launch a pincer offensive from two directions around the water source to wipe out the remaining tribes in one fell swoop.
The competition for survival near the water source is extremely fierce. Sometimes just fighting for a small insect corpse on the border may turn into a battle with tens of thousands of people. The seven tribes usually stay on guard, and the three tribes who are attacked are very likely to fight for survival. He quickly reacted and formed troops on the spot to resist. At the same time, reinforcements were continuously dispatched from the lair.
The intensity of the resistance of the seven tribes exceeded the expectations of the commander of the Maulin Ant Expedition from the beginning!
The first to engage in the battle was the electric ant tribe. They did not use the white-flowered pyrethrum weapons immediately, but directly faced the enemy with their small but sturdy warriors.
In fact, each of the seven tribes in the water source area has a rich reserve of white-flowered pyrethrum weapons, but these weapons, like nuclear weapons, will not be used easily, but are mostly used for deterrence.
After all, living in the eastern highlands where ants are densely populated, if the reaction to any war is too violent and triggers an endless war of genocide, the loser will die and the tribe will be destroyed, and the winner will also suffer heavy losses. It is very likely that it will be swallowed up by other coveters. Therefore, although the wars in the Shuiyuan area were frequent and fierce, the various ethnic groups would not easily fight with all their might, and they would deter each other and fear each other.
At the beginning, the electric ants were just a force ready to respond to the war, with a strength of only more than 10,000. Without the use of white-flowered pyrethrum weapons, these little men had fierce stings and could bring nerve-tingling sensations like electric shocks. The samurai still prevented the slave warriors of the Maulin Ant Expedition from making progress.
This expeditionary army of hairy forest ants had no choice but to take the lead in using poisonous smoke pupae. After being attacked by chemicals, the tribe of electric ants finally stopped hiding and used their own unique white-flowered pyrethrum weapon - a self-explosion pack that was very similar to the poisonous smoke pupal sac.
The raw material of this self-exploding bag is a plant's seed pod, which is about the size of a mung bean. When the seed pod matures, it will explode by itself and eject some tiny seeds. The electric ant tribe will harvest the seed pods when they are close to maturity, use a substance to temporarily inhibit the self-explosion function of the seed pods, and then drill holes and pour pyrethrum powder inside. When using it, you only need to apply another substance to activate the self-destruction ability of the seed pods. If there is a slight movement, the highly toxic white pyrethrum powder will explode.
The battlefield was filled with poisonous smoke and poisonous dust. Even though both armies were prepared, hundreds of ants fell to the chemical weapons!
