Chapter 1999 - Solution to Naturalized Citizens' Marriage Problem

The budget had been rejected. But the matter of finding wives for naturalized citizens proceeded as usual. Senator Du Yibin—the most enthusiastic proponent of this initiative—happened to have returned to Guangzhou from Enping at just this moment to handle various affairs. He planned to use this window to organize a vigorous Blind Date Assembly, followed by a grand Collective Wedding. The budget rejection hadn't extinguished his "career aspirations." He continued running in and out of Guangzhou City with limited time, single-mindedly "finding women."

Senator Du's involvement with naturalized citizen marriage work had begun even before the conquest of Guangzhou. He'd always been something of an oddity within the Senate. His official post was in the Agriculture Division, specifically engaged in animal husbandry. But the creature he bred most was something few understood: pangolins.

Though pangolins had been eaten nearly to extinction by wild-game enthusiasts in the twenty-first century, in seventeenth-century Great Ming, their numbers remained substantial. The animal itself held little edible value. The reason Senator Du Yibin bred pangolins, reportedly, was that pangolin scales constituted an important traditional Chinese medicine ingredient. This venture had therefore obtained Liu San's approval.

Nevertheless, his husbandry work was essentially classified as "Not Attending to Proper Business." Because he'd studied computer science, he'd also been secondarily assigned to the IT Department—running between two roles.

Neither breeding pangolins nor fixing computers had any connection to Civil Affairs work. Yet he'd thought of this initiative all the same. The reason: the Human Resources Department was unwilling to assign able-bodied laborers to him. The only full-time worker at his pangolin farm was a disabled employee. Through regular daily contact and frequent conversations, Du Yibin had naturally come to understand the distress such people faced.

One thing led to another. Senator Du began feeling he should do something for them—after all, he was a person from the twenty-first century.

According to Senator Du's design, those most urgently needing their marriage problems solved were disabled soldiers and workers. The former weren't numerous; the latter could be quite substantial—the Industrial Division's casualty rate exceeded the Army's by dozens of percentage points, and workers disabled by injury were legion. Though most such individuals were assigned work within their capabilities and their basic livelihoods were secured, with their conditions, marrying a wife was essentially impossible.

From a pure interest perspective, the Senate had no need to concern itself with these people's marriage problems. By seventeenth-century moral standards, the Senate's arrangement of simple work for them and guarantee of basic survival already qualified as Great Philanthropist behavior. Helping them marry wives on top of that was simply gilding the lily.

"We cannot view this matter from an interest perspective. Fundamentally, it carries the same meaning as when we originally established Green Hill Cemetery and erected monuments for fallen soldiers. Whether a dead person's corpse is thrown into the wilderness or grandly buried in a coffin makes no actual difference. Funerals and cemeteries—the dead can't see them, don't know about them. Ultimately, they're for living people to witness." So Du Yibin had spoken at a Civil Affairs Division meeting.

The settlement of disabled personnel followed the same logic. Though disabled soldiers and workers had effectively lost their productive value, their circumstances would profoundly influence ordinary people currently serving and working.

"But the number of people whose problems need solving is too large. Solving for disabled personnel first—isn't that...?"

"I believe they'll understand. If we've even considered the matter of finding wives for 'useless' disabled personnel, how could we ignore their concerns?"

The proposal achieved "Provisional Passage" within the Civil Affairs Division. But passage was merely passage. Where to find "wives" remained the problem.

For ordinary cadres, soldiers, and workers, this was simply a matter of time. The Civil Affairs Division could organize more blind dates, arrange more pairing activities—the problem would gradually resolve itself. After all, many people had already married wives through free love.

But for the disabled personnel Du Yibin advocated prioritizing, no woman would willingly marry them. Even in the twenty-first century, marriages involving disabled people were essentially pairings between disabled individuals.

Du Yibin pondered this problem for a very long time. Finally, he conceived a method—though it carried certain risks. After much deliberation, he decided to seek out Ran Yao for a conversation.

Securing a meeting with Ran Yao wasn't easy—the man was perpetually busy. But this matter required his approval.

Ran Yao was surprised when an unknown Agriculture Division Senator requested an audience. But the petitioner was still a Senator; in reason and courtesy, he had to grant the meeting.

"Minister Ran, I won't waste your time. My purpose in coming is to request a policy from you. I have an idea..." Du Yibin began. "Specifically: would it be possible to grant special pardons or release from prison to female prisoners currently serving sentences for minor crimes? They could be allocated to our disabled soldiers or workers as wives. Under normal circumstances, these men essentially cannot obtain wives..."

He handed over his proposal as he spoke.

"...This is my preliminary design. Please take a look."

His opening statement left Ran Yao stunned. What was this man trying to do? Prison management fell under the Judicial category—entirely outside the scope of what he, as Minister of People Security, could control. Besides, even if he could manage such matters, there was no way to open this door. How could it possibly be justified in legal terms?

He opened the proposal and read. Then he regarded Du Yibin with an expression of sheer incredulity. This truly bordered on the fantastical.

"There's no other way. You know the situation in Hainan—far more men than women. Without such measures, I genuinely cannot conceive how to solve their personal problems. I believe there must be quite a few minor-offense female prisoners in the Labor Camps. They hold no hostility toward the Senate itself. They should also be anxious to leave and start new lives. For those female prisoners, these conditions wouldn't be considered terrible..." Du Yibin offered an Early Sunny Edition cigar to Ran Yao as he spoke.

"Though we do have sentence reduction regulations, what you're proposing won't work. Ma Jia's side won't agree either. After all, our legal code contains no such provision." Ran Yao shook his head. "Actually, your line of thinking isn't entirely unworkable. The British employed female exiled convicts in colonies to solve immigrant marriage problems. But we lack legal support for this now—at minimum, we'd need the Senate to pass a temporary resolution."

"I can do that! I can do that! As long as you support it..." Du Yibin said urgently. "This is an era of competing for the realm. We can absolutely leverage this to win more hearts. Those minor details needn't concern us. Special circumstances warrant special treatment. Besides, the Police system also has injured and disabled personnel. As their superiors, shouldn't we solve some problems for our naturalized citizens? 'Of the three unfilial acts, lack of heirs is the greatest.' Even in the twenty-first century, personal matters get nagged about by parents. How much more so now?"

"I have no objection in principle. But your plan is somewhat naive." Ran Yao tapped the proposal's cover. In truth, Du Yibin's words had moved him somewhat. Several police officers had been disabled in the line of duty over these years—nearly all were single. Though they'd been assigned auxiliary roles within the police system, solving their marriage problems remained a genuine challenge.

"First, female prisoners in our Labor Camps are few," Ran Yao said. "Female crime in this era, truthfully speaking, is quite rare. For minor offenses, we mostly administer whipping or other summary punishments. Formal imprisonment is uncommon. So the female prisoners currently incarcerated are essentially heavy-crime offenders or 'State Affairs Prisoners.' The former cannot casually receive sentence reductions or pardons. The latter—how to dispose of them isn't for you or me to decide. Moreover, many female prisoners were already married before entering prison. Those who might meet your criteria? You couldn't find five or six out of hundreds."