The sour-smelling ants came menacingly. The rain had stopped at this time. The morning sun reflected a haze in the sky by the river bank. The beam was holy and the rainbow color was picturesque. Only the dirty mud left by the heavy rain on the ground ruined the whole thing. of beauty.
The indigenous sour ants are accustomed to the muddy surface. Their home is by the river in the mountainous area, and they have long been accustomed to rain and floods. Therefore, they do not completely rely on pheromone guidance that is easily ineffective in rain. They can also confirm their general location by identifying some obvious nearby landmarks with their eyes. Under the guidance of the leading scouts, the large group of sour ants are avoiding those difficult-to-reach landmarks. The passable area is winding and winding towards the camp of the pioneer team.
At sunrise, "Under the Tree" had already received reports from scouts that there were sour-smelling ants nearby. He originally wanted to send out militiamen to expel them, but he thought that whether they were expelled or not, they would have been discovered anyway. Since it was impossible to conceal the nest and develop it, Team, why not save some energy and wait for the battle later.
Yesterday, the militiamen were dispatched to harass the indigenous tribes all day long. The ants and militiamen who stayed behind were working day and night on the construction work. They were all very tired and could not even find time to eat. They were in urgent need of rest at this time.
Fortunately, the first line of defense of the nest was completed, and the ants who had been working for a long time had a chance to rest.
The outermost edge of the defense line is a trench up to 2 decimeters wide, which is also a floodway. It surrounds the entire mulberry tree area and played a significant role in flood control during yesterday's heavy rain. Although the trench was only half a decimeter deep, the bottom was completely filled with mud at this time, and there was still water in some low-lying areas, making it difficult to pass in general. The pioneer team in the nest could only enter and exit through a single-plank bridge built with branches.
Inside the trench is a wall, about half a decimeter high, made of ant concrete mixed with loess, and some tough grass stems are stuffed inside as reinforcement. Although some wall sections suffered small-scale collapse during the heavy rain in the middle of the night, after emergency repairs, it has not affected the overall situation. This wall has begun to take on defensive power, forming a semicircle to protect the nest. Both ends are connected to the trunk of the mulberry tree, so that the defenders above can command a commanding position. The wall may seem simple, but it is strong enough in small-scale battles.
The sour-smelling ants were coming fiercely. "Under the Tree" withdrew all the ants outside the trench and placed more than 200 armed militiamen and ordinary worker ants who were still physically strong on the fence. The remaining ants entered the nest to rest and continue construction to improve the facilities. .
There were more than 1,000 sour-smelling ants that attacked, and indigenous ants also arrived one after another. "Under the tree" saw that all the ants on the side had withdrawn, so he ordered the single-plank bridge to be put away.
A dozen worker ants used ropes to pull the single-plank bridge back to the inside of the trench. At this time, the scouts of the sour ants were already poking around the outside of the trench. Some impatient sour ants simply got into the bottom of the trench, looking for passage in the swamps everywhere. of lot.
The armed militiamen have already picked up slings or fireball slings on the trenches. As long as "Tree" orders them, they can attack enemy scouts from a distance. However, considering that the weapons reserves carried by the pioneering team were limited, and the scouts on the opposite side were scattered among themselves, it would be a waste of equipment to shoot accurately, so "Under the Tree" could not move.
After a while, the sour ant scouts discovered two passages, both of which were the parts of the mulberry tree roots that emerged from the ground in the ditch. They were relatively tough and could not be removed, thus becoming natural bridges. One of them traversed the trench and was the focus of defense, while the other could only pass through half of the trench, which was better than nothing.
So the stinky ants who got the news divided into two groups and swarmed toward the two tree root bridges under the guidance of pheromones and scouts. Most of the ants rushed to the previous tree root bridge.
Seeing that the main force of the enemy soldiers had entered the shooting range, "Under the Tree" allowed shooting. So the armed militia fired two rounds of volleys. Dozens of sour ants were knocked down and injured, but it was obviously unable to stop the main force of sour ants from approaching.
Although there are two bridges, the passing capacity is limited after all. One bridge needs to be filled with dry soil to fill a few centimeters of road at the bottom of the trench before it can be accessed. As a result, a large number of stinky ants quickly blocked the bridge and became a living target. The militiamen within the range began to shoot freely. Some of the fireballs could stick to and burn several indigenous ants in one go. This was unprecedented for the stinky ants. There were also signs of panic under the long-range attack.
The few sour ants that crossed the first bridge did not become powerful. "Under the Tree" was proactive and warlike in nature. He led a group of armed militiamen to climb down the city wall, killed them, and even rushed back to the bridge.
Sour ants, also known as formic acid spray, are somewhat threatening.
However, they are all blocked on the bridge and interfere with each other to form a joint force. Their combat effectiveness is weak in hand-to-hand combat. They are no match for the big-headed ants and pavement ant militia equipped with carapace and jaw knives.
Such a battle is extremely low-intensity for the elites of the Divine Envoy King's Legion who have been fighting fiercely with the Destroyer for many years. Even "Shuxia" and ordinary militiamen who have never been to the northern battlefield will not find it difficult to deal with it.
From day to noon, the sour ants dropped hundreds of corpses, and dozens of ants were pushed off the bridge and drowned in the mud. The defenders only lost 7 ants and injured more than a dozen people, most of whom were killed. Casualties caused by direct hits from formic acid.
By the time we hit the back, the stinky ants were no longer able to attack. They gathered outside the trench. They didn't dare to go up, and they didn't want to retreat. They were good at fighting in melees and fighting with the wind. The last time they defeated the Pioneers was just a surprise attack. They are cheap, but now they are facing each other face to face, but their weaknesses are exposed.
If they had just defended the new stronghold in this way, "Under the Tree" would not have become famous in the Southern Territory. In the afternoon of the same day, he made another extremely risky subordinate - leaving only a hundred worker ants to guard the stronghold and confront the enemy who couldn't leave. He personally led almost the entire main force and drilled in through another secret entrance. Behind the mulberry tree, we walked around in a big circle to find the nest of the indigenous tribe of sour stinking ants.
The tribe of sour and smelly ants also came out in full force. There were only a few hundred old, weak, sick and disabled ants in the nest, as well as the queen and male ants. Under the guidance of the Bee Flying Knight, "Shuxia" led his troops and broke into the nest at one go. All the ants inside were slaughtered, and the captive queen was carried away.
Then he led his troops into an ambush. The main force of the sour ants that had just received the report of the rout and were rushing back in panic had already been detected by the Flying Bee Knight. They plunged into the ambush circle and were cut into several sections by the "Tree Under the Tree" troops. , an immediate defeat. After the queen was carried out, half of the sour ants were forced to surrender, and the rest were dead.
In this way, in just two days, "Under the Tree" not only opened up a new stronghold, but also pulled out the hard nail of the sour ant tribe, captured nearly 800 slaves, killed thousands of enemy ants, and suffered casualties of its own Only a hundred.
This kind of plot of first defeat and later victory, and such a brave and resourceful commander, was the first time in the entire history of southern colonial rule, and thus "Under the Tree" became famous!
