This winter came early, but it went very slowly.

For half a month after the onset of winter, the sky is covered with cold air, although only at the beginning there is a small snowfall, after which the sun and blue sky dominate the sky and the sun covers the earth. However, the cold is the main theme.

Neither the sun, nor the blue sky, nor the earth, which is monotonous due to the lack of snow and ice cover, cannot hide the cruel fact of the cold.

Even at noon, when the sun is at its most intense, even the paver ants who can fully absorb the energy of the sun and can be outdoors for a short time in winter do not dare to go out during the day during this season.

The large river froze in just a few days, and the smaller mountain streams were covered by snow and ice, and the ice surface was extremely transparent through the rapid freeze, but the water still flowing under the ice could be seen. Occasionally, there is a crisp or dull sound, which is the sound of the water crashing against small rocks on the ice.

bleak, hardly a bit of green; Dead silence, barely a little life, this is the cruel winter. Without a world of homeotherms such as mammals and birds, it is almost impossible for other ectotherms to be active during this season.

The protagonist spends this half a month underground, with no military intelligence from the north he cares about, no enemies to defend against, and few urgent matters to be dealt with.

The ant nest in winter is lazy and peaceful, except for a few who are still working, most of the ants have not received the task, do not need to work, just spend time eating, sleeping and sleeping. The queen ant stopped laying eggs, the soldier ants stopped training, and most of the worker ants had nothing to do but repair their nests.

But there are some exceptions to the worker ants, most of which have a skill and have to be busy even in winter.

For example, worker ants on farms have to check the nest chamber where a large number of fly eggs and mealworm eggs are stored every once in a while, and pick out the bad eggs and take them to the food warehouse so as not to contaminate other intact eggs.

The granaries are also to be inspected regularly, and food that shows signs of spoilage is thrown into the upper part of the nest, which is close to the surface and has a cooler temperature, which is a natural refrigerator.

The artisan worker ants who fired pottery and made gravel tools were not idle, and with the spread of pottery and stone tools, they had to train novices with uncoordinated limbs while trying to complete production tasks.

Of course, in return for their hard work, the protagonist allocates a portion of the valuable meat and high-class food to these laborers, and ensures that they get enough sleep. As long as these two can be guaranteed, the lifespan of worker ants can be greatly extended, much longer than those of their own species whose nests can only take a brief nap. After all, these experienced "industrial workers" are the protagonist's precious asset, and the longer they live, the more they contribute.

The busiest is the newly formed textile worker ant group, which has mastered the art and is making felt from the stock of new or used ant silk, as well as a small number of insect whiskers. The weaving team is still training, and it takes time for them to get used to the dozens of animals working together in close coordination, and for this, the protagonist even has to assign a cherished large worker ant to the group as the team leader.

The finished felt and the first ant silk fabric have been delivered, and the protagonist's dormitory is now filled with ant-inspired fabrics: bed sheets, tablecloths, wall curtains, door curtains, and the protagonist has installed fabrics everywhere he can think of, and has led the other males and queens to follow suit.

For this reason, the protagonist had to set a quota for the use of textiles, so that the next part of the small inventory was reserved for the installation of the pave ants under his command.

Most of the paving ants are in the "Southern City", under the command of the Floating Leaf King. However, "Dongyang Cheng" only retains a small number of old paver ants in the research group, and they are responsible for sharing the technology of pavers with other team members, although pavers are the same as the big-headed ant family, and they are not good at technology.

After the weather finally warms up and the daytime temperature breaks freezing, the protagonist picks out a paver ant and experiments on his cold-proof clothing.

The clothing is made of light felt, dyed black with the juice of spoiled black berries that are unfit for consumption – these berries have the appearance of cloudberries and the smell of mulberry. The felt winter suit was cut to the right size by artisan worker ants with a simple gravel blade, which could be draped over the body of a paving ant, and then tied with rope to cover most of the bare surface of the chest and abdomen except for the head, without affecting the movement of the limbs and the air intake of the stomata.

The paver ants in the experiment were draped in felt, and together with the control one, which was still naked, crawled out of the hole in the morning at the request of the protagonist, and then basked in the sun on the dark shale blocks used to dry the dried meat next to it.

The paver ants covering the felt were obviously not as fast as the other of their kind, and although the felt was also dark, it covered the surface of the body after all. There should be some evolutionary secrets on the carapace of the paver ants that allow them to quickly draw heat and energy from the winter sun and warm up their stiff bodies.

However, after absorption, the carpet-covered paver ants are able to maintain their temperature much longer than their companions. After leaving the place in direct sunlight and entering the shaded area, the paver ants that are not covered with felt can only move for a short time at most, and must go back to recharge again, otherwise they will freeze or even freeze to death. Felt paver ants, on the other hand, are able to move for up to three hours due to their slower heat dissipation.

Obviously, the best way to use felt warm clothing should be to put it on after the paver ants are naked and absorb enough sunlight.

After the experiment is completed, the protagonist sends two paver ants to the "Southern City" to convey the order, and asks the Floating Leaf King to select a team of elite scout warriors to come, and he has arranged it.

The distance from "Dongyang City" to "Nanfang City" is not far, half a day is enough, and the paving ants of the herald will set off in the morning after basking in the sun and wearing warm clothes, and will arrive after noon.

In the afternoon of the next day, the elite scout team sent by the Floating Leaf King arrived.

The protagonist asks the artisan worker ants to make fifty sets of felt winter clothing, and after training these paver ant scouts to quickly put on and take off the cold clothing in pairs, he scatters these paver ants and conducts field training in the four fields of the nest during the day when the weather is still good.

With the bonus of winter-proof clothing, the paving ants, which can be temporarily active in the winter in the wild, are even more powerful, they make up for the disadvantages of other ants such as big-headed ants in winter, and with such a winter special combat team, the protagonist has more military feasibility. And that's exactly what the protagonist wants.

After another half a month of training, the cold wave came again, and the training had to be suspended.

And after the next warmer weather, the protagonist wants to send a small army of paving ants to the north bank of the Great River to learn about the information there!