Although the plane landed at the camp, Long Jianguo left the plane alone every time, took a small bottle from the hands of the researchers, then boarded the plane again and left, continuing the mission of catching giant ants.
Ye Han, who never got off the plane, naturally didn't know that Professor Qin was in that camp. Professor Qin never thought that Ye Han would be on the plane catching giant ants.
Later that day, the first batch of pheromones extracted from more than a dozen worker ants were sent to the Linzhou Provincial Military Region. The military region immediately organized manpower to implement a luring plan to attract the giant ants on the northern line of the ant-occupied area to continue to expand northward.
Before the insect disaster occurred, domestic research on pheromones did not pay much attention, but there was no shortage of corresponding research institutions. When the Pheromone Research Institute was established, it did not intend to start from scratch and directly use mature technology to separate pheromones.
However, the composition of pheromones is very complex. The only three types of pheromones that have been successfully separated are food, enemy encounters and corpse removal. Moreover, the purity of the finished product is extremely low and contains a large number of impurities of unknown composition.
Fortunately, some impurities do not affect the effect of the pheromone, and the purpose of the research institute is not to isolate high-purity pheromones. The existing results are sufficient to complete the ant trapping plan.
However, the plan did not go smoothly, because ants are very fond of nests, and the little pheromone provided by the institute was not even a drop in the bucket, and was not enough at all.
Seeing the locust swarms getting closer and closer to the border, Beidou immediately put pressure on the research institute, requiring the research institute to provide pheromones as much as possible, even if it only attracted some of the giant ants.
However, pheromones are extracted from giant ants, and there is no possibility of artificial synthesis in a short time. The quantity of finished pheromone products not only depends on the production capacity of the research institute, but also depends on the number of giant ants provided by the military!
So the task of catching giant ants continued. Long Jianguo, the officer with the most experience in catching ants, did his part and became the leader of the ant-catching team. All three companies under his command were involved in catching giant ants, and there were also several other teams.
The army joined the ant-hunting ranks, and a large number of giant ants were sent to the Pheromone Research Institute every day.
However, the worker ants and soldier ants are easy to catch, but the queen ant has never been seen. Even the research institute cannot come up with a suitable capture plan, so it can only put aside the matter of capturing the queen ant for now.
After all, the research institute is not a biochemical factory. Although it has the ability to extract pheromones, its production capacity is really poor. Fortunately, the research institute has developed an effective extraction plan. Under the direct instruction of Beidou City, Fuyun
Quickly set up a pheromone extraction factory.
The distance between Fuyun and the Yizhan area is seventy or eighty kilometers. In order to improve work efficiency and reduce the impact of transportation on refining, Fuyun's leaders suddenly came up with the idea of placing the factory on a train and driving it to
We stopped only a few kilometers away from the ant-occupied area and started refining work on the spot.
The trouble of transporting giant ants over long distances was eliminated, and the speed of refining pheromones increased exponentially. Finally meeting the military's needs, several groups of giant ants began to migrate to the north.
Since it took some time to deal with the giant ants, the vanguard of the giant locusts has already crossed the border, gnawed away the grasslands and forests, and rapidly expanded southward. According to the current spreading speed of the giant locusts, the locust swarm and the ant swarm will encounter each other in about six to seven days.
This result made all those familiar with the matter breathe a sigh of relief, and began to look forward to the time when the giant ants and giant locusts meet soon.
However, the military did not leave the passing giant ants alone. As soon as the locust swarm crossed the border, the two armored divisions deployed at the border began to implement an interdiction plan to curb the spread of the locust swarm from the east and west directions.
The reason why this can be done is closely related to the characteristics of the giant locust itself.
As we all know, although locusts have wings, their flying ability is very poor. After becoming giant, the problem of short wings becomes more prominent, and their flying ability is almost non-existent. They can only use the power of jumping to fly along the street for short distances, and can fly more than ten meters at a time.
Even if it's up to the sky.
For this reason, the sight of migratory locusts in the sky did not appear. The locust swarms were idling, and their maneuverability was far inferior to that of normal-sized locust swarms.
Otherwise, even if the military doubles its troops, it may not be able to stop the crazy swarms of locusts.
However, two fists are no match for four. The two divisions fought vigorously at first, destroying a large number of locusts. However, as the number of locusts passing through the border gradually increased, the strength of the two divisions gradually became stretched thin.
Fortunately, the mobilization was effective, and the locust swarm had just begun to show signs of getting out of control. The Northern Military Region immediately put seven reserve divisions that had been assembled in advance into the battlefield, and another four divisions were ready to enter the battlefield at any time.
A large number of weapons and equipment were used in the battle against the locust swarms. In addition to heavy land warfare equipment such as tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled rocket launchers and self-propelled artillery, the Air Force dispatched hundreds of fighter jets and threw countless ammunition at the locust swarms. Cloud explosive bombs alone consumed two
More than a hundred, cluster bombs, and thousands of incendiary bombs.
Various weapons are effective against locusts, but high-intensity fire strikes also consume a large amount of weapons reserves, causing the logistics department to complain endlessly. Military factories in various places are operating at full capacity, and military trains full of weapons and ammunition are running day and night.
, continuously sending ammunition to the front, and its intensity is no less than that of a medium-sized local conflict.
Correspondingly, military expenditures have also increased rapidly, making the economic situation that was already severely damaged by the insect disaster even worse.
The war is about comprehensive national strength. Jingjiang City has fought against several giant insects and has consumed a large amount of weapons reserves. Therefore, Beidou is very clear that using the army to eliminate the giant insects will inevitably cause a substantial increase in military expenditures and may even lead to a comprehensive economic collapse.
collapse.
The reason why we agreed to the plan of using insects to control pests is to reduce the cost of pest control and achieve the goal of eradicating giant pests at the lowest cost.
If it weren't for the various reasons behind it, how could Beidu agree to the somewhat unreliable "driving out ants and swallowing locusts" plan?
However, despite being mentally prepared, the losses in the battle against giant locusts on the northern border were still far greater than expected. In addition to the large consumption of ammunition, the fatigue of continuous operations has affected the combat effectiveness of the troops, and the northern capital had to find another way to control the locust swarms.
Soon, a low-key plan was put in front of the decision-makers in Beidu City. After much hesitation, Beidu finally issued an order, requiring the Northern Military Region to immediately arrange chemical defense troops to rush to the front line.
In accordance with the arrangements of their superiors, the chemical defense troops sprayed large amounts of insecticides around the locust swarm, creating a locust separation zone with a width of more than 200 meters.
A large number of giant locusts went all the way south and ate up all the vegetation on the road, but that little food could not even meet the minimum food requirements of the locust swarm. The giant locusts were unbearably hungry and their flying ability was degraded. The first reaction when entering the locust zone was to devour them.
, swallowing a large amount of pesticides into his stomach.
