The two teams of paving ants returning two days apart, and the protagonist exchanges information with the members of the two teams in turn to get the information they want, and then lets the poor frostbite patients recuperate.

Although the chitin carapace of these ants has a certain effect of absorbing solar energy and keeping warm from the cold, it still cannot adapt to the cold for a long time, and even with cold-proof clothing and overnight fire, most of the paver ants still fail to carry it.

In fact, if it weren't for the antifreeze protein unique to cold-resistant insects in these paver ants, their mortality would be much higher, or even wiped out. The protagonist doesn't know that antifreeze protein is the secret of the paver ants' ability to live in winter, he just hits the right and sees the cold resistance of the paver ants, plus he doesn't care about sacrifice, so he orders them to go north.

Frostbite is not only terrifying because it causes shock, forcing the team to abandon their surviving companions who are frozen on the road – and rescuing could mean dragging rescuers into danger.

It also lies in its permanent damage to muscles and internal organs - cold air will enter the ant's body along the stomata, causing frostbite of internal tissues and organs. Although frostbite did not kill these survivors for the time being, after returning to the warm nest, the temperature difference changed, and the frozen organs suddenly warmed up, causing a large number of cells to die. Several paver ants failed to survive the resulting organ failure.

In the end, only six of the thirteen paver ants survived, and two of them paid the price of disability and were forced to amputate their severely frostbitten arthrops.

The protagonist no longer cares about the lives or deaths of these paving ants, nor the winter suits and fires they are forced to discard. As a superior person, he is more concerned about the information obtained by the paving ants at great sacrifice.

Based on feedback from both teams, it is clear that "Target A" has not encountered any fighting.

When the two teams arrived, they found no signs of battle on the surface, and there were no bodies or wreckage.

In the winter battlefield, the attacking paving ants often leave a lot of corpses on the surface. These are old and weak paver ants, they can't withstand the cold, even if they are protected by the sun, they still freeze to death on the road. The cold is the executor of harsh natural elimination, and the old, weak, sick and disabled are quickly eliminated in this environment.

The army of paving ants would not collect the bodies of the deceased, partly because of their philosophy and belief that these individuals who died of the cold were weak and unworthy of being collected by other companions.

On the other hand, the reason is very real: collecting the corpses of companions requires a great deal of extra physical effort, and may even cause casualties to other companions. Just like on the mountain road of Mount Everest, there are countless corpses of climbers, whose corpses have become striking landmarks, but cannot be transported down the mountain.

The black paver ant carcass is discarded on the ground, and its black-brown carapace is also a natural heat-absorbing material, which can help melt the snow on the ground, and it is more beneficial for the whole race to stay in place.

For example, in last winter's defense of "Waterfront City", after the beginning of spring, the protagonist found that the island was full of frozen paver ant corpses, and the worker ants of the King Legion collected these corpses as food. Later, however, due to the abundance of food, the carcasses were basically used as feed for mealworms.

The paver ant team did not find the corpse on the ground, so they ventured deep into Target A's nest to be on the safe side.

The shallow layer of the nest is cool, and there are no cold-sensitive big-headed ant warriors stationed there, and the paving ants cross the shallow xylem and find the vigilant big-headed ant warriors in the dirt layer.

As soon as the two sides made a little contact, just when the big-headed ant guards wondered why the ants in front of them looked like they had the breath of their own sub-nest, the paving ant warriors had already obtained the information they wanted and fled.

"Target A" is still in the hands of the Northern Expeditionary Force of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom - after receiving vital information, the Paving Ant Warriors immediately follow the protagonist's request to avoid too much contact with the defenders here and leave quickly.

The protagonist doesn't want the news of the paving ant and the hunting sickle ant race to be known to the big-headed ants, which can easily cause unnecessary trouble.

Knowing the good news that "Target A" is still in the hands of the allies, the protagonist can't be happy.

With the ant's spirit of not admitting defeat, he couldn't understand why the Paving Ant Barbarian Army suddenly gave up the siege of "Target A" in the good situation of late autumn. After all, at that time, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom had been defeated again and again, and the food and troops were insufficient, so they were about to be surrounded and annihilated or driven back to the south bank of the Great River in one breath.

Previously, the protagonist guessed that the Paving Ant Barbarian Army did not understand the remaining strength of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom Army, and they were worried that the losses would be too large, so they planned to delay the attack until winter. At this time, the big-headed ant kingdom army could not hold the river bank on the ground, and the paving ant barbarian army could calmly cross the river, which was more advantageous.

But now, the Paving Ant Barbarian Army did not attack Target A, as the protagonist guessed! What's going on?

Could it be that they have given up attacking the well-defended "Target A" and instead crossed the river and launched a direct attack on the mainland of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom as they did in previous years?

If that's the case, all the sub-nests in the native Big-headed Ant Kingdom, except for the "Waterfront City", are empty of troops, and they will be easily captured.

However, is the Paving Ant Barbarian Army so smart? They didn't know the information about the emptiness of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom in advance, did they have the courage to launch a desperate southern invasion when there was still an enemy threat on the north bank of the Great River?

This does not conform to the usual logic of the ants' behavior, and with the protagonist's understanding, the ants are unlikely to give up the threat of an imminent enemy and instead attack other targets.

However, now the protagonist has no way to verify it. The trained paver ant squad suffered heavy losses. And even if the "Southern City" sends another batch of capable paving ants, they will have to be trained before they can be used, and they will not be able to be sent out in the short term.

Even if there is a paver ant team to go out, the protagonist doesn't know where to let them go to scout.

In previous years, the first battle of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army's southern invasion was basically an attack on "Waterfront City". But now that "Target A" is still there, it is like a barrier to protect the opposite bank of "Waterfront City", and the Paving Ant Barbarian Army lacks a starting base and cannot directly attack "Waterfront City".

So, will the Paving Ant Barbarian Army directly switch to the starting base and attack other targets?

The river is too long, and there are more than ten secondary nests of the big-headed ant kingdom distributed on the south bank of the river, and it is impossible for the paving ant team to reconnoiter all the banks of such a long river, that is, to die!

So, where exactly did the paver ants go?