Since the last heavy rain at night, the development of "Dongyang City" is back on track.

After a day of construction, the fortress at the entrance and exit of "Dongyang Castle" was completed, and the design targets were met after acceptance. After that, the protagonist sends a construction team to build an identical fortress at a predetermined location in the south.

After the construction was completed, Roll entered the fortress with twenty squads and stockpiled a certain amount of food.

Every afternoon, the army of parasitic ants would arrive on the perimeter of the fortress on time and launch an attack on the fortress.

Due to the blockage of trenches and earthen embankments, the defenders of the fortress basically did not need to deal with the sneak attack of the silk parasite, and although the parasitic ants had no strength, they could only return with hatred in the face of the defenders who were prepared, disciplined, and numerically superior.

Later, the protagonist even rotated the defenders of the fortress to train all the soldiers in "Dongyang City".

Under the cover of the fortress, production activities in the southern area of "Dongyang Castle" were carried out normally, and the protagonist intensified the mining of salt mines.

The protagonist didn't pay attention to this small salt mine before, after all, the ants only occasionally need to replenish salt, and they can usually meet most of their salt needs by eating insect meat.

After obtaining a large amount of salt, the protagonist develops a new food for salted mealworms.

Due to the expansion of mealworm farms, the supply of large quantities of mature mealworms has exceeded the daily needs of the nests.

Since mealworms stop growing in winter when temperatures are low, excess mealworms are dried to facilitate preservation in order to compensate for the lack of meat in winter.

However, dried mealworms are stored underground, and they will still be moldy in humid weather, and the moldy dried insects can only be crushed and dried and fed to mealworms or flies for food, which is a great waste.

With enough salt, it was possible to make cured meat, which had a unique flavor and was quickly loved by ants, and the shelf life was extended.

With resources such as salt and cured meat, the protagonist also wonders if he can trade with other main and secondary nests and exchange ideas. However, considering that the Big-headed Ant Kingdom does not have a trade system, in terms of materials, there is only a requisition or assistance relationship between different nests, and there are currently no urgently needed materials in "Dongyang City", this idea has been shelved for the time being.

Later, the protagonist uses clay mixed with ant saliva to improve the firing of pottery, and practice shows that the improved clay tire has a greatly improved yield after firing, and it is not easy to deform after firing.

Later, the production of pottery in Dongyang Castle began to rise, and many liquid or granular foods could be stored in special large clay jars, which were equipped with lids to ensure the relative dryness of the materials stored inside, and also extended the storage time. Unlike in the past, liquid food could only be stored in the stomach of each ant, and all other food was left on the mud floor.

All the queen ants and queens are given bowls, pots, and jars, and the protagonist teaches them how to use clay pots to store water, and use clay bowls and pots to hold and eat food.

Although they suddenly changed their eating habits that had been used for millions of years, the males and females were very uncomfortable and resistant at first. However, after the protagonist moved out of the divine decree and said that the gods also ate like this, the opposition was quickly eliminated.

In the process of firing the pottery, the protagonist notices that some of the burned pottery is covered with a smooth and delicate layer, and these pieces of pottery are hard and sharp like porcelain knives made by fine craftsmen.

The protagonist studies the clay of this batch of pottery, although it is also clay mixed with ant saliva, but these clays have more impurities, rich in fine particles of quartz and feldspar.

The temperature of this batch of pottery was so high that the quartz and feldspar particles melted when fired at high temperatures, giving the surface of the pottery a smooth and delicate coating. And because the temperature was too high, the pottery tire inside was also burned.

After seeing these pottery fragments, the protagonist is reminded of something that is very important in the field of ceramics - glaze.

Glaze is a continuous vitreous layer attached to the surface of the ceramic body, or a mixed layer of glass and crystal.

The glaze is made of mineral raw materials (feldspar, quartz, talc, kaolin, etc.) in a certain proportion, and is made into glaze slurry by grinding, applied to the surface of the body, and calcined at a certain temperature.

Glaze can increase the mechanical strength, thermal stability and dielectric strength of the product, as well as beautify the utensils, easy to wipe, erosion resistance and other characteristics.

The ancient Chinese working people learned the technique of firing glaze very early, as early as the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, the ancestors used rock and mud to make glaze to decorate ceramics. Later, ceramic artists used the phenomenon that kiln ash naturally landed on the body to form a glaze, and then used plant ash as a raw material for glaze.

Due to the lack of kaolin resources and the temperature of the combustion chamber is not high enough, Dongyang Castle is not yet able to fire porcelain. However, the performance of glazed pottery has been greatly improved compared with simple clay pottery, second only to porcelain.

And what the protagonist values most is that the glazed pottery fragments are very strong and sharp, and in the absence of metal, they can completely replace metal knives.

Due to their own limitations, ants rely on large jaws to chop and tear large objects, but they are helpless in the face of some sturdy materials (such as hard wood), which greatly limits the use of materials. Tools, on the other hand, can greatly increase productivity.

The protagonist is so intrigued by this that he asks the workers to collect a large amount of ant saliva, clay, quartz particles, feldspar particles, talcum powder, and plant ash, and make glaze paste in different proportions, which he applies to the shaped pottery knife and fires it.

However, the final experimental results were not satisfactory, some pottery knives were completely separated from the glaze layer, and some pottery knives were too brittle to be used.

The protagonist doesn't have much time to spend experimenting, so he summons the secretary and puts a team of worker ants under her command, and she is responsible for conducting the experiments according to different proportions.

Although the heavy rain has passed, its aftermath is not over.

The protagonist once stumbles upon some worker ants discarding some sprouted grass seeds into a garbage dump on the ground.

After inquiry, it was learned that the grass seeds had been soaked when the warehouse was flooded, and they were not dried in time, and they germinated.

The sprouted grass seeds don't taste good, and now that there is plenty of food, the ants don't like to eat them, so they simply throw them outside.

But the protagonist has something else in mind. Dongyang City now has a stable supply of meat (mealworm farms), but the food supply is still dependent on gathering, especially the collection of various grass seeds, and the harvest of this collection is not stable.

Before, because the food was quite abundant, and all kinds of things came one after another, the protagonist didn't expect to develop agriculture.

Now that there are a lot of sprouted grass seeds, the protagonist thinks that instead of throwing them away, it is better to plant these grass seeds, maybe this will become the abuse of ant agriculture.