River crabs originally had a very mixed diet, mainly eating aquatic weeds and humus under natural conditions, and were fond of eating animal carcasses, but also liked to eat snails, mussels, worms and insects, etc., and occasionally preyed on small fish and shrimp. When food is scarce, river crabs can also kill each other and even devour their own eggs.

But in this world, there is a lack of large animals such as mammals, reptiles or amphibians, and the size of the crab is already the largest creature known to the protagonist. These crabs do climb to the top of the food chain, and few other creatures pose a threat to them.

Although the protagonist does not know what is going on in the water, he has lived by the river for a short time and has never seen a fish.

Crabs have lost food such as animal carcasses and small fish, and have no natural predators, so they gradually evolve into fierce predators. In addition to still eating some vegetarian food, most of these crabs rely on hunting as their main food source, which includes a variety of aquatic animals, and they are also ruthless when it comes to insects that are much smaller than themselves in the water or on the ground.

Unfortunately, there are not many insects near the salt marshes, and the dense ants happen to be the prey.

However, the protagonist doesn't care how powerful these crabs are, and he doesn't plan to go to the salt marsh to fight these crabs. He knew how strong the carapace of these crabs was, and that after the crabs were steamed, they had to use their teeth and tools to pry open the carapace and eat the crab meat, roe and paste inside, and people were often scratched by the spikes on the carapace.

The ants want to deal with these heavily armed crabs, and the protagonist really can't think of any good way, so it's really difficult to do it.

So, the protagonist warns the tumor and tells him to restrain his men to stay away from the salt marsh as much as possible and try to preserve his living strength, even if he doesn't collect salt. At the same time, the protagonist also tells him to warn the king of "Yancheng" to try to avoid provoking these crabs.

As for whether the king listened, only God knows. Although the protagonist was authorized at the beginning, he did not interfere with the rule of "Yancheng", and now he is still in charge of the original king of "Yancheng", and he has a lot of autonomy.

As for this closed-door approach, which may lead to a reduction in salt production, the protagonist is not afraid.

In the territory of Dongyang City and other Divine Envoy Kings, in the previous rush to transport salt, enough salt has been stored until the beginning of next spring, and there is no risk of salt shortage in the short term.

As for the lack of salt in other territories of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom, the protagonist can also use a little bit of the inventory to help them. As soon as the crab breeding season is over, these crabs will die one after another, and "Yancheng" will be able to resume production.

At present, this production method of collecting salt crystals is a very labor-intensive industry, as long as the number of ants is invested, the yield can be significantly increased, and enough salt can be produced before winter.

- I'm the dividing line -

After sending the messenger away, the protagonist continues his leisurely life on the one hand, and on the other hand, he learns about the war dynamics of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom through the flying knights who travel back and forth between "Dongyang City" and the north bank of the Great River every day.

After the protagonist attracts three black-headed sour ant tribes to sneak attack the Paving Ant Barbarian Army, the Paving Ant Barbarian Army can only postpone the offensive against "Target Ding" due to heavy personnel and material losses.

But in the days of the truce, neither side was idle.

The Paving Ant Barbarian Army is stepping up to mobilize supplies and reinforcements from within the territory along the Great River. The Paving Ant Barbarians are indeed very rich, and they don't even need to mobilize the territorial hinterland and the secondary nests in the north to be sure that they will be able to regain the lost land before winter.

And in winter, this army still has to cross the frozen river and launch a southern invasion.

This is not all the war potential of the paving ant barbarian country, the protagonist has learned in the northern reconnaissance operation before, the paving ant barbarian country is still at war with a group of enemies that the protagonist does not know in the north, and judging from the troops invested by the paving ants, the northern battlefield is the main battlefield where they go all out. The southern army dealing with the big-headed ant kingdom army is just a partial division.

At the same time that the Paving Ant Barbarian Army was actively searching for supplies, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom was also doing its best to reorganize its armament.

After a series of fierce battles, the Northern Expeditionary Army has lost half of its new territory, and the Northern Expeditionary Army, from the leadership to the ordinary grassroots commander, has realized the actual combat effectiveness of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army, and no longer dares to underestimate the enemy.

In a few days, the Northern Expeditionary Army completely renovated the defense of "Target D" and repaired the previously damaged parts.

In order to curb the paving ant barbarian army from using pontoon bridges to cross the stream, the Northern Expeditionary Army also built new nests in several narrow places where the stream was narrow, and stationed a part of the troops here, so as to give early warning to the "target Ding" nest, and at the same time prevent the enemy from crossing the river at the first time.

The Northern Expeditionary Army also collected grain everywhere, and collected all the land on this side of the stream, whether it was insects or edible berries, young shoots, vegetable leaves, roots, and grains.

A large number of the bodies of the war dead on both sides were also dried in the sun when the sun was shining as emergency food.

And the reinforcements of the four legions that "Qingqiu City" scraped the ground again and pieced together brought a small amount of food, which can be regarded as strengthening the strength of the defenders.

After four or five days of rest, the Paving Ant Barbarian Army finally launched another offensive.

However, the Northern Expeditionary Army was apparently more prepared, and the defenders of the few newly built nests were always able to stop the attempts of the paving ants and worker ants to set up the pontoon bridge on the shore in time.

If the pontoon bridge cannot be built, the army of paving ants will not be able to land, and it will not be able to give full play to the superiority of troops. In this way, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom will not fall into a brutal war of attrition.

As a result, the war has shown signs of stabilization, and the only hidden concern is that the granary of the Northern Expeditionary Army is slowly bottoming out, and there are no large corpses to replenish and consume.

- I'm the dividing line -

The protagonist is waiting for the best time to intervene in the battle on the north bank of the Great River, the first beetle larvae have hatched, but there is still a long way to go before they break the pupa and complete their training, and it may not be possible to count on this beetle army before winter.

At this moment, "Yancheng" was in an emergency again.

This time, the worker ant messenger sent by the tumor came to "Dongyang City" to report the news, and of the five messengers sent by the tumor, she was the only one who came here alone, and the others died from the attack of the crab.

According to the tumor's report, the crabs have begun to attack the nest of "Yancheng" in groups, and they have even begun to dig into the soil layer as if they want to completely destroy the ants hiding inside.

And the culprit who caused the crab siege was none other than the king of "Salt City"!