Herald of Steel

The 500 km journey from Parthenigh to Thesalie took Alexander almost two months to complete, averaging only 15 kilometers a day- half his usual pace, all due to the weather.

And during this time, all three, Alexander, Ophenia, and Gelene suffered various sicknesses, with Gelene still running quite a high fever when they reached the city.

Thus when Alexander was afforded the luxury of resting in the lavish palace with its ruler Lapitus wishing to be a gracious host and inviting him to stay and enjoy himself for a few days, the exhausted man was more than happy to accept and let the group rest their tired bodies.

"Big brother! Yay!" Alexander's agreement to stay also caused a great cheer to erupt from Fabiyana who was also there.

The little girl had gotten a bit homesick after being all alone in Zanzan for the first time in her life and with nothing better to do there, Cambyses sent her here to spend some time with her parents.

The bright girl seemed very happy to see Alexander as she hugged and smiled brightly, while the pasha found the ten year girl to have gotten a bit bigger and a lot chubbier in the last six months, now almost looking like a round ball, with fluffy, red cheeks full of baby fat and cute little hands so fair that they almost shined under the sunlight.

Fabiyana was already showing signs of growing up into a lady far more beautiful than even her mother.

Lapitus and Lady Felica had moved into Lord Ponticus's luxurious palace upon being made the governors of the place city, and they tended to Alexander with their heart and soul, serving him the best food, drinks, and comfort they would offer.

Although sadly, in the last category, there was no item listed as Lady Felicia as Alexander could not find a proper opportunity to take this arrogant woman behind her husband and daughter's back.

Yet.

Hence he had to restrict himself to only all the meat, cheese, butter, and wine his weary body could handle.

The two long months had been quite tough on his palate as he had to subsist on the army camp supplies, which due to obvious reasons lacked variety and rich taste.

So he very much enjoyed the upgrade.

Alexander's stay at Thesalie was simply not rest and relaxation of course.

He also did quite a bit of work here.

First of which was dismissing the bulk of his army, around 20,000 of them.

He did this because he was right on the doorstep of Zanzan, his own core territory, and knew the levies were itching to return home as soon as possible so that they could start preparing for the spring planting.

But before they left, Alexander made sure to properly compensate them.

One of which included him paying the men all their leftover due salary, which was about six months of it.

The individual payments varied from soldier to soldier, since in Alexander's army, the pay rates changed depending not only on one's rank but also on the type of soldier they were.

For instance, foot soldiers, i.e.- the famed legionnaires got paid the least, at around 150 to 180 ropals since they were the least skilled, who were then followed by the crossbowmen who got about 20 to 30 ropals more, and lastly came the most expensive group, the riders, and cavalrymen who got as much as 70 ropals more, as their skills were the hardest to muster.

As for the additional reason why Alexander did not pay his men for the last six months even though he clearly had the money to do so, well that was because that was how payments in the military worked.

Alexander, and for that fact, no army paid their workers per month every month like modern armies did.

Instead payments were divided into semiannual or quarterly installments, being given out six month or four moths increments, done so as a way to keep bureaucratic costs down as giving one monthly payment was a pain on the logistics.

Alexander's ledgers would show he paid roughly 5,000 ropals per soldier during the entire 20 months of his campaign, costing him around 100 million ropals in total for the one and half year campaign.

Which if you will recall was almost twice the original budget of 60 million that he had originally envisioned.

Although that was only for the conquest of Thesalie.

But still, it highlighted the expense of any large scale war.

Something that was not easy to bear by anybody, not even the biggest nobility out there- the pasha.

As a typical pasha earned 150 to 200 million ropals annually in taxes after everyone had taken their cut.

Meaning that conducting such a campaign would require at least six to nine months of their pay.

Or in the context of a typical American earning 60,000 dollars, that would be around 20,000 dollars or more per year for two consecutive years.

Not an easy prospect.

Especially if you invested all that money and then still lost the campaign.

It could easily be seen from this instance that it was little wonder that many nations went broke and many kings were dethroned after losing a war and bankrupting the treasury.

Hell, the British empire, the biggest empire in history fell because it could not keep its economy afloat to maintain its oversee holdings.

Now, to be fair Alexander did not pay out all of this in cash.

All those salaries were quoted pre- deduction, meaning a large portion of that was deducted from their salary as food, equipment, livestock, transport, and many other hidden and miscellaneous expenses, like 'medical insurance'.

So each solder only really got 50 to 100 ropals each month as actual cash.

But even then, the leftover amount was no paltry chance, especially when it was accounted for the fact that this was all 'post expenses', i.e.- after food and lodging were taken care of.

So all of it was savings, kept with them or sent home to their families.

And adding this all up to the fourteen months of pay that Alexander had already cashed out, each solder should have more than 1,000 ropals, certainly quite a large sum for the average Joe.

However, then you have to remember that these men were soldiers, fighting on the frontlines with their lives on the line.

So knowing they could die any moment, many tried to make the most of it, spending lavishly on gambling, prostitutes, and other merriments to keep their spirits up, hence subsequently making the various camp merchants and especially the capital other merriments to keep their spirits up, hence subsequently making the various camp merchants and especially the capital of Tibias Parthnigh very rich.

Alexander knew this because had gotten the sales tax receipts of the time period from Phillips, and it showed the Tibian treasury had earned a staggering 1.6 million ropals in just those two months.

Which gave the total sales to around 40 million ropals.

Meaning each solder had spent close to 1,000 ropals there alone.

Ridiculous!

There were even some who had already finished their own money and started to get in debt, borrowing money from their fellow comrades at an interest.

For these spendthrifts, Alexander's cash 'prize' of 600 ropals thus came as quite a relief.

At least now they would be able to return to their home with something to show for it.

In addition to this, Alexander also allowed these men to take spoils of the war worth around 1,000 to 2,000 ropals depending on their rank and battlefield contribution, such as bravery in the field, killing a set number of enemies, reward for killing an enemy officer, or even just for being in the front echelons during the start of the fight- the men in the front three rows of the formation were usually paid double, sometimes even triple- such as the skilled men committing the heavy cavalry charges.

And Alexander's distribution of loot was considered quite generous for the time because normally, the regular grunts usually received one to two months of their salary as spoils.

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There were of course exceptions when the entire army had so much booty that they could all retire.

But such cases were very rare, only occurring when conquering very rich regions, such as perhaps Alexander's Zanzan.

Tibias was certainly not that rich and lush of a region to produce so much loot.

But even then Alexander gave each of his soldiers six months to even a whole year's wage as a reward.

This was such a large amount that even though Alexander was already known to be a generous lord, and perhaps even a bit infamous for being somewhat loose with his money, such luxurious treatment still shocked many.

30 million ropals disappearing just like that seemed excessive to them, with even Menes privately urging Alexander to reconsider.

"Alexander. These men are still our soldiers. Not our children. No need to pamper them so much." His close friend had asked, representing the will of many of the nobles and officers.

Even this tall general who was himself quite beloved by soldiers for his fair treatment towards them found Alexander's care excessive.

But Alexander this time ignored the advice, rationalizing the large expense as buying the men's loyalty and stimulating the economy.

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