Chapter 214: Spring Shock!
There was no snow this winter, but at the end of February and almost March, there were several heavy snowfalls, as if to make up for the previous shortcomings.
Fortunately, the heavy snow at the turn of winter and spring did not affect the winter construction plan of the Ant Alliance, and the paving ant engineering team has basically completed the second phase of the canal in winter, extending the two branches of the canal to the Black Forest and the area of [Golden Beach City].
It is much easier to connect to water, which is much easier because the water burns and freezes in winter. The second phase of the canal project is now only a few finishing touches to be completed.
The winter construction team is composed entirely of paver ants, and only the unique racial characteristics of paving ants allow them to be outdoors in winter without being frozen by lower temperatures.
However, limited to the physiological characteristics of insects, even paver ants can only go out on days when the sun is still good and there is no wind and snow, not to mention other ants, they can only shrink underground to overwinter.
The original main force of the canal engineering team was a large number of burrowing ants, belly-raising ants and Japanese black brown ant slaves captured by the Ant Alliance when they conquered the Red Fire Ant Country, and more than 100,000 slaves were lost on the construction site after more than half a year of high-intensity labor.
Before winter, less than 100,000 surviving slave ants are assigned to a few secondary nests in the Black Forest region to overwinter, where they will recuperate and continue to be crushed until they die.
The protagonist has no intention of digesting these ants as nationals of the Ant Alliance, and these slaves have adapted to the kind of ruling system of the Red Fire Ant Country, and it is not easy to reverse it. Don't look at the IQ of the working ants, but maybe because of this, once they identify something, they will not look back.
There are also a small number of male ants among the slaves, and some male ants have faster brains, and if they behave well and are willing to surrender, the protagonist also sets a few examples, allowing them to join the ant association, and even gives him the title of representative of a deputy nest meeting and a representative of the ant tribe of his own tribe.
These subservient slave male ants are alone, with different experiences and different philosophies from other representatives of the same race, and without supporters, even if they have the title of representative, they are empty, and they can't make any waves.
In order to survive, in order to be recruited in an ethereal way, he led a large number of his subordinates to work the canal construction site, worked hard, ate food that the citizens of the ant alliance country could not look down on, and lived in the shallow hole that was temporarily dug overnight that day, and could not breathe until winter.
Since male ants, even if they are slaves, do not need to do heavy and dirty work, and are still in command, they are willing to obey so much without making mistakes.
————
When the first clusters of bright yellow spring flowers and forsythia bloom their petals, spring arrives.
On this day, the protagonist is dressed in thick ant felt, and walks around the outside of the ant mound at noon.
At this time, the outdoor temperature is okay, and even ordinary ants can barely go out. However, in order to avoid unnecessary damage, most ants still have to wait patiently underground for half a month before coming out of the nest.
The protagonist has a very different physiology from other ants, can breathe on his own, and his body temperature is also constant, and he can walk around outside at any time when he is fully dressed. It's just that there is a lack of guards, and he is in a high position, and it is difficult to stand on the dangerous wall, so there will not be many outings like this.
Watching the bare earth begin to breathe of early spring, the protagonist knows that the three-month break is almost over.
During this time, the protagonist really didn't do much except for studying food and opening up the territory, he slept until he woke up naturally every day, and he ate when he woke up, and his brain didn't turn much, and he was a little sluggish!
It's spring, what should I do first?
The protagonist shakes his head and antennae, well, when it gets a little warmer, it's time to send the Flying Knights to the lairs to deliver orders.
Before the beginning of winter, the Flying Knights had assigned tasks to each locality, asking them to expand the ant population as planned near the beginning of spring, and prepare to form a new legion or labor team to carry out the winter production plan.
Now is the time for these plans to bear fruit.
Well, there should also be a joint meeting of all ethnic groups, the conference will be suspended for three months, and the delegates will have to gather together to discuss, even if the delegates are trapped in [Xinyang City] and can't get out, and they don't have any work in the winter like the protagonist, but the procedure still has to go.
So on March 8, the first joint meeting of all ethnic groups was held this year, and as expected by the protagonist, there was no topic, that is, the scientific research team came up with some research results in winter.
This result makes the protagonist very happy, and the research team has developed a technology on how to collect locust eggs, which is of vital significance for the domestication of locusts.
Hatching and domesticating locusts are not too difficult, and the research team has done successful experiments on locust eggs found in the wild. The difficulty in domesticating locusts is that they prefer to use their oviducts to dig deep into the ground for spawning, and the eggs are safe, but difficult to collect.
The scientific research team's method is simple and crude, that is, the oviposition tube of the pregnant female locust that was finally caught in the wild is cut, and only a small section is left, and it can only obediently lay its eggs on the ground when it is locked in the nest room.
Although the method is simple, but effective, the protagonist commended the scientific research team, giving them an ant, a bowl of soy milk, and three drops of honeydew as a reward, and encouraging them to start trying to breed locusts according to the experimental method after the beginning of spring this year.
The hatching and domestication of giant dragonflies and scarab beetles must also be tackled. These three beasts have their own merits, and the scarab beetle has the largest load, but the voyage is the shortest; Flying locusts have the best endurance and are easy to raise, but the individual load is the worst; Monitor dragonflies have a medium level of weight bearing and stamina, and they are fierce insects that no other insect can threaten, but dragonflies eat meat and are not very economical to raise.
Regardless of which beast is chosen as the main force of air transportation in the future, or there is a new and more suitable beast, but at present, these three beasts must at least accumulate technology first.
————
In mid-March, spring finally prevailed in the repeated tug-of-war with winter, and the weather was warm and vibrant.
The Flying Knight began to travel to various sub-nests as planned to convey instructions and announce the official start of construction this year.
Two days later, the Flying Knights from all over the country returned, but the Flying Knights who had gone to a few secondary nests in the eastern Black Forest did not return.
The protagonist and the Flying Knight Commander then remembered that the Flying Knight who had also gone here before the winter did not return, and thought that it was bad weather, and they wintered on the spot.
But now that the two successive groups of flying knights have disappeared, with an interval of more than three months, this is not a good sign, and it may even be a sign of danger!
The protagonist urgently orders the nearby sub-nest to send ground troops to search the target lair to find out what is going on, and the Flying Knight troops send a few horses to monitor the air, and they are not allowed to get close to the ground to prevent danger.
Soon, the protagonist receives the results of the investigation that makes him angry!