Previously, as a last resort, a large proportion of the food of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom was the corpses of both the enemy and the enemy that were collected.

Even ants know that eating the corpses of their companions is susceptible to diseases, especially rotting corpses. So, when possible, they would dry the corpses in the sun and dry them as much as possible to reduce the occurrence of decay, which would minimize the chance of outbreaks.

And once the fighting rages, like the weeks of fierce fighting at Target D, where the defenders have to deal with enemy attacks during the day, there is no time to dry the corpses.

But the defenders themselves are still rapidly depleting the stored grain, and at this time, they can only throw the "fresh" corpses directly into the granary.

The dark and constant temperature underground granary is an ideal living environment for many germs, and a large number of fresh corpses provide nutrients, so the epidemic begins to break out. The disease first infected the worker ants guarding the granary and then quickly spread to all the big-headed ants.

Although ants have evolved good resistance in nature, and there are not many ants that have died directly from this unknown epidemic that has also broken out in the past, many ants will lose their mobility and combat effectiveness due to illness within a certain period of time.

This sudden epidemic greatly weakened the Northern Expeditionary Army's combat effectiveness, and was the main culprit that caused them to lose many territories and strongholds faster than the protagonist expected.

Fortunately, this epidemic treats big-headed ants and pavers equally, and although the paver ants on the attacking side do not need to feed on the corpses of both sides, in the fierce hand-to-hand combat, there are also soldiers who are infected and then bring the disease back to their nests.

Paver ants have healthier diets, and they like to spend their calories in the sun every day, so the outbreak of the disease in paver ant colonies is not as intense as in big-headed ant colonies, but it still affects them to a greater or lesser extent. At least every time the Paving Ant Barbarian Army moved to pursue the Northern Expeditionary Army, they had to leave behind thousands of worker ants in poor health until they recovered before they could chase the large army.

Although the big-headed ants did not know the cause of the outbreak, the ordinary worker ants did not have much emotional fluctuations due to this. But the more intelligent males, who are more willing to take care of their lives, believe that the plague is the punishment of the gods, and the punishment for eating the corpses of their kind, based on primitive and simple religious theories.

Therefore, both the Public Security King and the General A King kept sending messengers to the rear, hoping that the main nest "Qingqiu City" would be able to deliver food, so that the troops would avoid feeding on the corpses that had already appeared in large quantities of decay and mold.

However, the current situation of "Qingqiu City" is not good, and the food storage is only enough to survive this long winter. The continuous defeat and retreat of the Northern Expeditionary Army also made the Great King Conference very disappointed, they felt that they could no longer expand their territory on the north bank of the Great River, and their support and enthusiasm for the Northern Expeditionary Army were also declining, and they did not send new support for a long time.

Because of this, the batch of food sent by the protagonist is still precious, even if the amount is a drop in the bucket compared to the still huge scale of the Northern Expeditionary Army. This batch of grain was kept by the male ants for their own use, after all, it was a gift from the king of the gods.

- I'm the dividing line -

The offensive and defensive battle of "Target A" began two days later.

The Paving Ant Barbarian Army had reached the other side of the stream the day before, and their scouts soon found it easy to defend and difficult to attack. Therefore, instead of using the secondary nest of Target B, which is half a day's away, the commander of the paver ants built a new base high on the other side of the stream.

At the same time as the base was being built, the Paving Ant Scouts were also in all directions, looking for a path to attack.

They soon discovered that they had no choice but to attack from the rotten wooden bridge that ran across the stream. There is no path from the lower reaches of the stream to the mouth of the river that flows into the river, and it takes a day to walk upstream before a new bridge crosses the river.

The leader of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army was unwilling to abandon the half-built base, and instead led a large army to cross the stream by detour.

Therefore, the day after the construction of the base was completed, the Paving Ant Barbarian Army launched an attack through the Rotten Wood Bridge.

The Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom had already been prepared for a long time, and built a branch nest at the bridgehead. The tree on the rotten wooden bridge was naturally sideways, with a trunk only as thick as the mouth of a bowl, and its ability to pass was limited, so the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army successfully contained the offensive of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army.

The next day, the Paving Ant Barbarian Army still returned with a feather.

On the third day, as soon as the paving ant barbarian army was lit up in Tianfu, they launched an attack. While the Layer Ant Warriors are a little stiff because they don't have time to absorb the heat of the sun, the more intolerant Bighead Ants, who spend the night underground, are even more sluggish.

Therefore, the Paving Ant Barbarian Army took advantage of this surprise attack and successfully rushed through the rotten wooden bridge and advanced the battlefield to the other side of the stream.

However, as the sun rises, the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army, which has been relieved, counterattacks with all its might, and the ability of the Rotten Wood Bridge to pass finally restricts the battlefield delivery of the Paving Ant Army. As the bridgehead was cut off by the big-headed ant kingdom army of the two-wing pincer attack, the paving ant army was driven back again, and the soldiers who remained on the opposite bank were quickly wiped out.

On the fourth day, the Paving Ant Army went around collecting dead leaves and tried to build a pontoon bridge, but the rushing stream quickly dispelled their thoughts.

The two sides continued to fight over the rotten wooden bridge for four or five days.

Finally, one morning, the Big-headed Ant Kingdom Army, which had been waiting for a new wave of attack, did not wait to pave the way for a new wave of Ant Army.

The cautious police lord sent a large number of scouts, who searched up and down the banks of the stream, but also found no trace of the enemy.

Then, a scout team cautiously crossed the rotten wooden bridge and groped their way to the newly built departure base of the Paving Ant Army.

At the base, the Big-Headed Ant Scouts spotted a few of the Walker Ant Warriors who had been left behind, apparently suffering from the plague and injuries.

The fleeing scouts reported the news to the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Force, and two legions were sent out to attack and eliminate the small remnants of the paving ants in the base.

At this time, the Northern Expeditionary Army finally determined that the enemy had retreated, and although the enemy's retreat was somewhat inexplicable, the Northern Expeditionary Army could breathe a sigh of relief.

The soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army were now transformed into farmers and hunters, taking advantage of the absence of enemies, taking advantage of the warm sun in the last few days of winter to gather food.

There were many insect corpses that died before the winter, as well as a lot of newly landed grass seeds and fruits, and after a few days, the Northern Expeditionary Army finally collected enough food to survive the winter, and abandoned the large number of rotten corpses in the granary.

However, no one could have predicted what the meaning of the unusual withdrawal of the paving ants would be!