(urth) The Piteous Gate (was: Book of the new sun (1-4) questions)

[Chris]

The road is officially devoted to military use, the transportation of troops 
and supplies, so that is what the gate is for.

I find all arguments about what happened at the Piteous Gate to be a bit 
tenuous, but here are a couple things which make a certain amount of common 
sense to me at any rate.

Even if the uhlans are authorized to plunder anyone on the road, it would 
probably not be profitable for them to do so (because then nobody would ever 
use the road). The profitable way to approach it is to leave people alone 
for the most part and not enforce the rule - this also happens to be good 
for the economy - which would encourage people to go ahead and use the road, 
even if they are aware that there is some small risk involved. Then, every 
once in a while, you come down and enforce it; and when you do so, you will 
end up with a huge haul rather than a couple stray travellers here and 
there.

>Duncan wrote:
> >>1: what happened at the piteous gate? there was a riot,
> >>there were clone soldiers...?
> >
>Tony wrote:
> >The explanation for this has cropped up a few times in the list,
> >actually, but since it's my explanation I'm happy to repeat it. :-)
> >
> >The soldiers are driving people off the road, because it's illegal to
> >use the roads of commonwealth.
>
>I find this explanation a bit odd. Why have a gate if no one is allowed to 
>use the road to pass through it?
>
>Rob
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