According to the messenger's report, after receiving the protagonist's order, the tumor gathered his subordinates and only helped forage near the "Salt City", and no longer went to the already enlarged salt marsh to collect salt grains to avoid unnecessary losses.

He also truthfully conveyed the protagonist's suggestion to the king of "Salt City".

However, due to the continuous arrival of salt transport teams from the main and secondary nests in various places, there is an urgent need for a large amount of salt. The king was also under great pressure, and in order to meet the salt needs of the whole kingdom, he took the risk of sending out worker ants to try to find the few grains of salt far from the water.

For ants, in fact, the speed of movement of river crabs is not very fast, and if it is not for poor eyesight, these river crabs may not always be able to catch the petite and agile ants. The rocks on the waterfront are vertical and horizontal, and it is difficult for ants to distinguish whether the blurred objects in the distance are stones or crabs, and it is too late to escape the attack range of the crab claws when the crabs get close, so they are easy to be caught.

If you move to a flat terrain away from the water, the ants should be less likely to be preyed upon when they become vigilant. This was the king's wishful thinking, but it backfired.

It is difficult for the worker ants to collect large quantities of salt grains in these safe terrains, after all, these salt grains are left behind by the transpiration of salt water, and the salt marsh water level is already high due to the irregular eruptions of hot springs, which inundate most of the high-yielding "salt pans". The salt that ants can collect is all fine salt grains that have been blown away by the wind before, and naturally there is not much. In the past few days, the salt production in "Yancheng" has dropped sharply, not even one-tenth of the usual amount.

There are more and more salt transport teams stranded in "Yancheng", and these salt transport teams want to bring back enough salt for the nest to use for the winter, and the production of "Yancheng" is relatively only a drop in the bucket.

In desperation, the king of Salt City ordered the ants to venture close to the salt marsh, trying to exchange some of the ants' sacrifices for precious salt.

For the big-headed ant kingdom, the meaning of the existence of "Yancheng" is to provide salt, and a small amount of food produced in its territory is enough to supply the consumption of two or three thousand ants in this nest. Therefore, even if the fresh life of worker ants is exchanged for the salt needed by other nests, in Wang's view, it is not a loss-making deal.

In this way, in the next few days, a large number of worker ants flocked to the salt marsh, grabbed a grain of salt and ran. Another one or two hundred worker ants died under the pincers of the river crabs.

The river crabs apparently also found that the number of ant prey in this area was abundant, and began to move here in large numbers. In contrast, prey around the salt marsh is very scarce, most insects can not survive in this saline environment for a long time, crabs can catch are some of the creatures that come here to replenish salt and stay for a short time, many of these creatures are agile, good eyesight, responsive, river crabs hunting success rate is not high.

In contrast, ants are easy to catch, and these big-headed ants do not have formic acid or venom in their bodies, making them a delicacy that river crabs can enjoy with confidence.

What's more deadly is that there were only a few hundred crabs in the salt marshes before, but as the peak of the breeding season approaches, more and more female crabs come to the salt marshes to lay their eggs in the relatively warm salt marshes. As for this bit of salt in the water, most crabs can adapt to the salinity of the seawater, and river crabs, although they are freshwater crabs, can also survive in salt marshes.

With the increase in the number of female crabs waiting to lay eggs, the food around the salt marsh has become more and more stressed, and the worker ants looking for salt have become a small and stable food source.

As more and more river crabs gathered, the casualties of the salt-seeking team sent by the "Yancheng" side became more and more heavy, and Wang had to stop this behavior of exchanging his life for salt, because the replenishment rate of new ants could no longer keep up with the consumption.

However, the retreating ants lured the river crabs that followed them to the vicinity of the nest. It is not far from the salt marshes after the water level has risen.

The river crabs, who had already lost their prey, followed the nearby worker ants who were foraging, and finally discovered the location of "Yancheng". The river crabs smelled the smell of food hiding in the ground, and more than a dozen river crabs began to gather here, digging through the soil with large tongs and eight legs, trying to dig out the ants hiding in the ground.

It was at this time that the tumor realized that something was wrong and sent five messengers for help, but only one of them reached its destination.

This is also how the ants can be contacted in case of an emergency - sending multiple messengers to break through and report the message.

After all, the probability of a single messenger having an accident on the road is not low, and many messages often cannot be delivered to the destination. If it is a general message, it is good to send a messenger to deliver the letter, at most the sender will send a messenger after he realizes that he has not replied for a long time. However, important information must be backed up by multiple messengers to ensure that the message is delivered in a timely manner.

The protagonist simply establishes a messenger system, requiring that ordinary information be delivered by two messengers who depart one after another, important messages by three to five messengers, and especially important messengers can send more messengers depending on the situation. Messengers should move along the ant path, except in emergencies, early morning and late afternoon are not allowed, and instead choose to spend the night in a nearby nest or safe place. This ensures the delivery rate of the information.

Not only couriers on the ground, but the Flying Knights are often used as couriers by the protagonist, and while many of them are not happy, these objections are suppressed by the protagonist's growing prestige. And with the entry of the second batch of flying knights taught by the protagonist, the proportion of flying knights who are willing to obey the protagonist unconditionally is also increasing.

Although the flying knights are very fast in delivering messages, they can also be chased by insects or accidentally fall into cobwebs. To this end, the protagonist also chooses to increase the number of flying knights when delivering messages to ensure the transmission rate of information, and at the same time orders the flying knights to fly at a medium altitude as much as possible, although the wind is stronger, but they can avoid more predators such as dragonflies that appear at low altitudes, and also avoid traps such as cobwebs.

After some rectification by the protagonist, the efficiency and delivery rate of the messengers of the Divine Envoy King's legion have been greatly improved, and there are rarely cases where messages fail to be delivered.

Back to the river crabs.

The protagonist is also anxious when he learns that both "Yancheng" and the tumor are in danger, and he immediately orders Xiaoqing II to be brought to the ground and prepares to set off to find out the situation himself.

It's been half a day since the messengers set off, and if the river crabs move quickly, then "Yancheng" may have fallen into the hands of monsters.

Mulan immediately sprang into action and sent two guards to the stable to bring out Xiaoqing II. The protagonist walks briskly along the main passage of the nest to the surface, and along the way, the ants smell the information smell emitted by Mulan and avoid it!