The protagonist is wrapped in a thick cotton coat of plant fibers, swaying from side to side in the wind. If he hadn't had enough strength to firmly grasp the gaps between the bark, he would have been blown away by ordinary ants.

The reason why he braved the cold wind every day to come to this branch was to keep an eye on the movement of the river and the other side of the river. This north-facing branch is the closest point to the north bank of the river.

Although the river is not completely frozen at the moment, a large amount of ice has begun to appear in the river water a few days ago when the temperature has been below zero for several days. These ice cubes also mean that the ice period of the great river has officially begun.

The process by which a body of water such as a river begins and ends with freezing is known as the freezing period. The ice period does not begin when the entire river or lake is completely frozen, but is judged as the critical point from the formation of the ice form.

The river flow is the initial stage when the river begins to freeze. Due to the flow of the river, the process of freezing of flowing water is very different from that of still water. Due to the flow of water, the river mixing effect is strong and the turbulence disturbance is strong, not only the surface layer cools rapidly, but also the bottom layer cools down at the same time, and the water surface and water can freeze almost at the same time. So river freezing occurs both on the surface and in the water, and the river can reach roughly the same temperature up and down the river before freezing, and as long as there is a crystal nucleus, it can start freezing anywhere. Observations have revealed evidence of the existence of bottom ice, which also points to the possibility of such a theory.

Generally, there are two situations of river freezing: one is to start from the bank, first form bank ice, develop towards the center of the river, and gradually converge into an ice bridge, and the width of the ice bridge expands, so that the entire river surface is frozen. Another is that after the drift ice forms an ice dam at a narrow or shallow river, the ice blocks quickly freeze with each other and between the ice blocks and the river bank, and expand upwards against the current, freezing the entire river surface.

The Great River, despite its atmospheric name, is at best a small ditch in the human world. Therefore, its river surface area and water capacity are not enough to support the formation of temperature differences between different water bodies within its water body.

Therefore, the freezing process of the river starts from the river bank, and the liuling gradually accumulates on the relatively cold bank, compacts to form a fixed ice block, and then the ice surface continues to expand, and finally meets from the bank to the center of the river to complete the freezing.

Now, there is a considerable area of ice on both sides of the river, and it seems that in a few days, there will be enough passage for the entire river to pave the passage of the ant barbarian army.

The enemy across the river is not idle these days. Except when the weather is bad, the protagonist will go to the branches of the trees every day to watch the movement of the enemy.

These Paving Ant Barbarian armies are always on the days when the protagonist observes them, that is, climbing the ground during sunny days and hiberning on cloudy or windy days.

They don't come out to forage for food like in other seasons, after all, it is difficult to find food on the ground in winter, and the food stored in the paving ant nest is enough for most of the paver ant barbarian warriors to live until the beginning of spring.

The protagonist notices that the Paving Ant Barbarian warrior's outings are more like sunbathing and adapting to the cold wild.

When they first came out of the nest, these paving ant barbarian warriors generally moved stiffly, similar to the big-headed ants that were frozen in winter, and it seemed that the insulation measures of their forward base were not very perfect, and these paving ants were also frozen last night.

But after a few moments of quiet lying in the sun, the ants begin to become more vibrant, almost as dexterous and agile as they were in the summer. The protagonist thinks it's the heat of the sun that charges them.

As ectothermic organisms, paver ants, like big-headed ants, do not have their own mechanism to regulate body temperature, and can only rely on their own behavior to regulate the emission of body heat or absorb heat from the external environment to increase their body temperature.

When the temperature of the external environment decreases, the metabolic rate of the ants also decreases, and the body temperature gradually decreases. So they burrow into the ground or burrows to escape the winter.

Paver ants obviously have another option, they are dark in color, they can make good use of the radiant heat in the sun, and when they sunbathe, their body temperature begins to rise, and their metabolic rate also increases, and they begin to become flexible and agile.

Much like cold-blooded animals such as snakes and crocodiles, they also need to bask in the sun in the morning to raise their body temperature before they can move, so they are almost always active during the day and rest at night.

The protagonist guesses that this is the mystery of the paving ant barbarian army being able to move freely in the wild during the winter day, and the big-headed ants are lighter, even if they draw a scoop according to the gourd, it is not so good.

Some people may ask, in winter, the temperature is so low, can the heat of the sun alone warm up the body of ants quickly?

In fact, everyone ignores the huge energy contained in the sunlight in winter.

In 1930, the expedition ship "Gauss" was blocked by the vast ice and snow in Antarctica, and the crew could not break through the thick ice by ramming, chopping, sawing, and smashing, and even blowing it with explosives to no avail. It wasn't until they sprinkled coal dust and black ash on the ice, that the next day the ice melted and created a wide passage for boats.

Most parts of the planet get more sunlight in winter than in Antarctica, so in winter, people who install solar water heaters can take hot showers.

The energy contained in the winter sun is enough to support the well-fed little ants to carry out their activities throughout the day.

The paving ant barbarian army on the other side of the river is constantly adapting to the temperature during the day, and at the same time, there are many scouts who climb onto the ice from time to time, constantly exploring the width of the ice.

Due to poor eyesight, especially static vision, these scouts cannot rely on vision to determine the extent to which a river is frozen. As a result, these scouts will climb all the way to the edge of the ice, only stopping when they come into contact with the icy water. The scout then leaves a semaphoron at the edge of the ice and begins to move along the edge of the ice, and over time, the pheromone outlines a topographic map of the edge of the ice.

Eventually, the scouts brought the information back to their king. The king of the paving ant barbarians can constantly assess the exact time of the attack.

The protagonist estimates that this time will not exceed a week, and the second battle between the Divine Envoy King Legion and the Paving Ant Barbarian Army is imminent.

Last time, with the protagonist's tactics, the Divine Envoy King Legion and the allied army almost annihilated the Paving Ant Barbarian Army on the south bank of the Great River. Now, the Divine King's army is even stronger, but the number of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army is far greater than last time. The Legion of the Divine King has a strong and well-built fortress to defend against, but the harsh winter months are natural allies for the Paving Ant Barbarians.

This time, who will kill the deer?