Imperial delivery...

[khiemtran]

I had a flash today about the Imperial Postal Service... Blue trimmed helmets, bronze breastplates, blue tassles. Banners and trumpets and ceremonial halberds, to ensure a favourable impression when they carried a message in the Emperor's name. The more important the message and the higher the status of the recipient, the greater the company of messengers required. Outside a provincial castle, a company of Imperial messengers is forming up in full battle array, trumpets ready, war elephants restless, the ceremonial battering ram (with the appropriate Imperial seal) polished and gleaming in the morning sun. At least this will be an easier job than that letter they had to deliver to that temple of jumping monks in the mountains.

Ah, yes, a bold and disciplined force, the Imperial Postal Service, feared and respected almost as much as the battalions of the Imperial Revenue Service.