> >Hmmmm, whatever the nominal pay is, I have the suspicion that the
> >actual payments may be erratic and in arrears. After all, shipping
> >large amounts of coin across Prax to some dusty town on the edge of
> >nowhere is risky, and from a bureaucratic perspective wasteful--why
> >teh soldiers aren't willing to just have their wages put on account
> >for when they return is completely impossible to understand from a
> >civilized perspective, given that the army gives the lodging and
> >food. So I'd guess that the average trooper actually sees more coin
> >from bribes and shake downs than from formal pay.
> >
> >But that is just my cycnical view of things.
Soldiers that don't get paid regularly have a tendency to mutiny, *especially* if they are in a garrison situation (where foraging for food can mean that your barracks are burned down with you inide them - garrison troops *need* cash to spend on food, drink, companionship, etc). While a *very* loyal unit might be willing to forgive up to six months worth of back pay, a less than fanaticly loyal unit (or mercenaries) may start having mutinous thoughts after the first missed payment.
And the pay is most likely in hard currency, not scrip. Which means that the Lunars have to figure out how to get hundreds of pounds (if not tons) of silver and/or gold (for officers, naturally) through Dragon Pass and into Prax (and down to the siege at whitewall, and into the Holy Country) without it being snatched by the resistance.
RR
It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has
done what he has done.
- Richelieu
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