Zhang Lang and the scout captain have walked about ten miles away
"Another one?" Zhang Lang frowned and looked towards a small hill not far away. He saw a strange tree growing on the bare hill!
At first glance, this strange tree looks like an ordinary tree. It is three to five feet tall, full of green crowns, and its palm-sized leaves sway in the wind... But in the wilderness full of red earth and yellow sand, where not a single blade of grass grows, something like this suddenly appears.
It's such a big tree, it's really weird.
On the way here, I seem to have seen a few big trees like this. I didn't pay attention to them before, but now it seems that they are really weird...
"That's not a tree!" the scout captain explained: "It's also a strange insect!"
"Strange insect?" Zhang Lang was stunned: "How did the insect become like this?"
"We don't know either!" The scout captain shook his head: "We have investigated it before, but when touched, this thing will make a ghostly scream, which is deafening, and it can easily attract insects. From then on, we no longer dare to approach it.
…”
"It's making a strange noise?" Zhang Lang frowned: "Let's go up and have a look, maybe we can find the insect's weakness!"
Arriving at the foot of the hill, Zhang Lang signaled the scout captain to stay away and wait. He jumped up the hillside and came to the strange tree.
"Sure enough!" Zhang Lang's eyes widened and he looked closer. This was indeed a strange insect that looked like a big tree!
This insect is shaped like a centipede, several feet long, with countless tentacles sticking out of its tail that are stuck in the ground, and countless green flat tissues sprouting from the front of its body, which look very similar to leaves and open to the sky. From a distance, they are no different from the crown of a tree.
.
Zhang Lang frowned, drew out his long knife, and stabbed into the insect's body, which was unexpectedly fragile. The insect was injured and suddenly trembled all over, and soon a blood-red, wrinkled creature protruded from the crown of the tree.
The strange organ in the folds suddenly trembled violently and let out a piercing scream!
The scream shook Zhang Lang's eardrum. Although it was not enough to cause harm, it also made him frown. As for the scout captain, although he had been prepared and retreated very far away, he was still disturbed by the scream and covered his ears.
.
Zhang Lang raised the knife again and stabbed it into the organ that produced the sound!
Poof? The noise stopped suddenly, and a thick mucus sprayed out? The red organ suddenly shriveled up? Then, the entire tree insect collapsed and died.
Huh... the scout captain finally let go of his hands, breathing heavily? It looked very painful. If he got close to this, he might be easily shocked to death on the spot!
After confirming that the tree bug was completely dead, the scout leader dared to get closer and climb up the hill: "This thing once shocked my comrades... I don't know what the hell it is!"
Zhang Lang frowned and looked at the insect corpse: "The green leaves make noise...I know what this is!"
"This thing is the herald of insects!"
"Herald?" The scout captain was puzzled. Zhang Lang explained: "We dissected insect corpses before and found that they have organs that receive sound waves? It is speculated that the insect king uses sounds that are inaudible to humans to control the insect swarm. But the insect king has left
If it is too far, the sound cannot be transmitted. And this kind of tree insect that makes noise? It is the herald that links the insect king and the insect swarm!"
"You mean, the Insect King's instructions are transmitted through trees? All the way to the front line?" The scout captain understood.
Zhang Lang nodded? Actually? He felt that the Insect King should have used other methods to contact these tree insects, and then the tree insects translated its instructions into sound wave signals. But it was too troublesome to explain to these ancients, they could
It’s good to understand.
"This can also explain why the insects retreat at night!" Zhang Lang pulled off a leaf:
"This tree bug is a semi-vegetative bug. It probably relies on photosynthesis to obtain nutrients, so it goes dormant at night. Without the herald, the insect swarm will become chaotic and violent, so it retires and goes to sleep."
"Photosynthesis?" This is still a new word to the ancients.
Zhang Lang thought for a while: "In other words, when the sun sets, these big trees will go dormant, so the insects will also retreat."
The scout captain's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Then let's find these big trees and chop them down. The insects won't be able to attack them tomorrow."
This proposal is very attractive to Zhang Lang. Indeed, as long as the insects do not attack tomorrow and survive the sixth day, their mission will be completed, and there will be no need to go deep into the insect den to be so dangerous.
But then he thought about it, this was just his guess, what if it didn't work. And who knows how many tree worms there are in the worms. If another batch is deployed tomorrow morning, all the previous efforts will be wasted.
"This is a way..." Zhang Lang nodded.
"Then let's go clean up the tree bugs now?" the scout captain asked cautiously. Facing Zhang Lang, the notorious insect killer, alone, he was really a little scared...
"No!" Zhang Lang looked to the north: "Let's continue looking for the insect nest!"
"Ah?" The scout captain hesitated, and Zhang Lang glanced at him: "Are you afraid? If you don't dare to leave, can I hold you up?" As he said that, he raised his hand to support the scout captain's horse's belly, exerting slight force.
, the horse was lifted up by him, and the horse was so frightened that its hooves stiffened and it did not dare to move...
"I can just walk by myself!" The scout captain knew that he had no choice but to lead the way.
After more than an hour of trekking, we finally saw the edge of the insect swarm almost a hundred miles north of the fortress.
The two climbed to a high ground and looked around. They saw millions of insects, densely packed on the ground, curled up one by one and falling into sleep. Among these swarms of insects, at regular intervals, there were
, there is a huge insect nest that seems to be made of clay and is nearly a hundred meters high. The insect nest is full of holes, which should be the passages for the insects to enter and exit.
"There are so many..." Although he had seen the insect swarm army more than once, now that he came to the insect nest, the scale and momentum still shocked the scout captain.
"So many, where is the Insect King?"
"It should be the biggest one!" Zhang Lang pointed to the huge insect nest in the center of the swarm, which was several times taller than an ordinary insect nest.
"Okay, you can go back!" Zhang Lang glanced at the scout captain.
"Ah?" The scout captain was stunned: "You want to go in by yourself?"
"Then you coming with me?"
Zhang Lang glanced at him, and the scout captain hesitated for a moment. He was not afraid of death, but this kind of death was meaningless! And with Zhang Lang's combat power, it seemed that it made no difference whether he could be taken with him or not, and he was still a bit of a burden.
The scout captain took out a small bag and handed it to Zhang Lang: "The powder inside is applied to the body, making it difficult for insects to detect it!"
These are secretions collected from bugs. After years of fighting, humans have discovered that bugs often rely on smell to identify similar species. Therefore, when doing some special tasks, humans often apply these secretions to cover up the smell. But there are also
It can only cover up the smell. The bugs are not blind or deaf. If they are seen and heard, they will still end up being besieged.
Zhang Lang glanced at him, then at the sweaty war horse he was holding, and took out a military ration pill and gave it to him: "There is no grass along the way. The war horse is exhausted. Give it half a pill."
This can replenish your physical strength! Keep the rest and people can eat it!"
"When you go back, tell the marshal to send someone to clean up those tree bug monsters!"
The scout captain took it, nodded, led the war horse down the hillside, and left quietly, leaving Zhang Lang alone to sneak into the insect swarm.