Chapter 89: The Army's Marriage Problem

Dongmen Chuiyu was drunk and didn’t notice the subtleties of his argument. He continued his grandiloquent speech: “Regarding the matter of Huang Xiong’s detachment getting involved with women, we should say that it was actually Huang Xiong’s detachment that was seduced by the women. The reason is simple: there wasn’t enough food! The starving and freezing women could only use their bodies to secure a chance at survival. Otherwise, without physical strength, they couldn’t carry supplies, clear corpses, or clean up trash for the Northbound Detachment to earn food, and they would have starved to death. The women’s actions are completely blameless. As for the young men of Huang Xiong’s detachment not being able to resist this temptation, that’s also understandable. Our army is not made of puritans, after all, and the relevant regulations don’t forbid finding women. Lin’gao has so few women, and suddenly they’re throwing themselves at you. How many can resist? Therefore, it’s understandable that Huang Xiong’s detachment was defeated by sugar-coated bullets.”

After this impassioned speech, before Wei Aiwen could express his admiration, Dongmen Chuiyu’s head suddenly drooped. He seemed to have entered a state of mental shutdown, and a faint snore escaped his nose. Wei Aiwen was about to call the female orderly to help the secretary to the rest area when his eyes opened again, and he continued to speak eloquently on the issue:

“Huang Xiong has two major problems!”

Wei Aiwen wondered how there could be two “major” problems, but he continued to listen attentively.

“The biggest mistake is this: he allowed an unpurified native to enter a crucial military area without authorization. Although a detachment commander’s headquarters is just a grassroots command post, you can’t just dismiss it as unimportant! That’s the wrong attitude!” Dongmen Chuiyu’s tone suddenly became fierce, as if he were the detachment commander being treated as unimportant. “The most serious mistake is that he failed to maintain military discipline! He allowed his soldiers to get involved with women! As I said, getting involved with women is not a crime, but getting involved with unpurified native women like this, what if they get venereal diseases? Even if they don’t get venereal diseases, getting skin diseases or scabies is also not good!”

“So, what’s your recommendation for handling this?”

“No need for a demotion. Old Huang is an old comrade in the army, after all. He’s already missed many opportunities. If he’s demoted again, it will be even harder for him to catch up. I think we should just nullify his merits from the Shandong campaign,” Dongmen Chuiyu said. “As for those soldiers, according to your suggestion, transfer them all to the White Horse unit to serve as non-commissioned officers.”

“Alright, we’ll do as you suggest.” Wei Aiwen put on a “completely convinced” expression and nodded repeatedly.

“Huang Xiong’s case is not a big deal. The problem of the officers’ and soldiers’ lower halves still needs to be solved…” Dongmen Chuiyu’s voice grew quieter, and he leaned back on the sofa, silent once more.

“Help Elder Dongmen to the rest area.” Two female orderlies acknowledged and were about to step forward when Wei Aiwen thought for a moment and changed his mind. “Go call a teahouse attendant to help him.”

Wei Aiwen watched as Dongmen Chuiyu was helped out, checked his watch, said a few words to the others, and then left early. He had other things to do.

He returned to the Political Department office in the General Staff compound in Bairen City. Although the Political Department was just a “department” under the General Staff, it was much larger and more powerful than the other “departments.” This was not surprising for a Yuanlao Yuan that placed great importance on “political work.” Wei Aiwen often referred to himself as the “Director of the General Political Department” in private. In fact, this was not an exaggeration. To a certain extent, the General Staff’s Political Department was the General Political Department of the Fubo Army.

He instructed the female orderly on duty to light the gas lamp and make him a cup of “Golden South Sea” coffee. Wei Aiwen plopped down in his rattan armchair, lit a cigar, and began to think.

The last thing Dongmen Chuiyu had said before he left was the issue he had been wanting to discuss with the General Staff secretary. Unfortunately, he was too drunk today, and they didn’t have time for a detailed discussion.

Huang Xiong’s case had actually uncovered a hidden problem that had been troubling the senior Elders of the Fubo Army: how to deal with the soldiers’ sexual needs.

Throughout history, the sexual needs of soldiers had always been a headache for rulers. “Rape and pillage” was almost a “tradition” of classical armies. Even in modern armies that emphasized “discipline,” rape and promiscuity after combat and training were common and could not be stopped.

While rape seriously damaged public opinion and worsened military-civilian relations, voluntary promiscuity was not necessarily a good thing either. During World War II, the US military had a relatively smaller reputation for rape compared to other armies, but their widespread promiscuity, fueled by C-rations and nylon stockings, caused the venereal disease rate among soldiers to rise to double digits.

As long as a ruler was not a warlord in chaotic times, they had to consider properly managing the sexual needs of their soldiers for the sake of maintaining basic public morale, military morale, and health. The most common methods were military brothels or tacitly allowing the existence of civilian establishments similar to military brothels—the latter being the various red-light districts that “naturally formed” near US military bases.

If an army was so poor that its soldiers couldn’t even afford to visit prostitutes, it would undoubtedly encourage homosexual behavior, sometimes even leading to a “culture” of officers raping soldiers and veterans raping new recruits. This was once very common in the Kuomintang army, to the point that in the “speak bitterness” sessions of the liberated soldiers, “sodomy” accounted for a considerable proportion of the accusations against the old army.

Although many Elders cited the PLA, especially the Red Army era PLA, as a counterexample, Wei Aiwen felt that was a special situation under special historical conditions. A puritanical army with a strong sense of self-sacrifice first needed a leadership with a puritanical consciousness to lead it. The Yuanlao Yuan clearly did not have this temperament, and they couldn’t even pretend to have it.

How could he, who aspired to have three wives and four concubines and even wanted to build a museum of human races, demand his subordinates to be celibate? That would be like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. And the idealism of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had shattered very early on.

In dealing with this problem, the Fubo Army, on the one hand, kept the soldiers busy to expend their physical and mental energy. In addition to normal duties and training, they had to spend a considerable amount of time each week on “supporting construction” tasks. On the other hand, since the establishment of the Fubo Army, there had never been a rule “forbidding prostitution.” During their rare leave, soldiers could go to licensed prostitutes for some fun. This was considered a form of “release.”

However, the severe gender imbalance in the society under the Yuanlao Yuan’s rule made the business of prostitutes extremely popular, and the price of their services skyrocketed. The prostitutes’ “business” was also overwhelmingly busy.

Therefore, not every soldier who wanted to spend money could get what they wanted. Some Elders had suggested establishing a system of military prostitutes similar to the “camp prostitutes” of the Song Dynasty, but the idea was ultimately abandoned because most Elders found it unacceptable.

Furthermore, using prostitutes to satisfy the sexual needs of soldiers could only be a short-term solution, as prostitutes could not meet the family needs of officers and soldiers.

In the current state of military preparedness, unless they were wounded or disabled, there was basically no possibility for Fubo Army officers and soldiers to be discharged in batches. The current Fubo Army was essentially a “professional” army. Thus, the marriage problem, which was originally only a concern for officers, had become a problem for the entire army.

After the start of Operation Engine, Wei Aiwen had begun to formulate a plan to prepare for the army’s marriage problem.

He had specifically talked to Liu Muzhou about solving the marriage problem for officers and soldiers, suggesting that they could hold some “military-civilian social events” after Operation Engine ended. However, Liu Muzhou expressed great difficulty. The number of unmarried or widowed women being transported was likely not even enough to solve the marriage problem for the workers and administrative staff of the various industrial and agricultural enterprises under the Yuanlao Yuan. He was not the only Elder who had come to him asking to solve the marriage problem for his subordinates.

However, the army’s problem was always a big problem, and Liu Muzhou couldn’t just brush it aside. He agreed to hold a few “military-civilian social events,” but on the condition that Wei Aiwen strictly control the standards and not try to solve the problem on a large scale.

“No problem. Something is better than nothing. At least it gives people something to hope for.”

Wei Aiwen was quite familiar with many of the political work policies and methods in the history of the PLA. Since he was solving the marriage problem for the military, policies like the “2-5-8 Regiment” inevitably came to his mind.

Of course, it couldn’t be copied directly, but the specific policies could be formulated along these lines.

The so-called “2-5-8 Regiment” referred to the three criteria that cadres had to meet simultaneously to get married during the Anti-Japanese War: over twenty-five years old, having served in the army (or party) for eight years, and being at the regimental level or above.

Wei Aiwen roughly followed this model and came up with a similar standard: over twenty-five years old was a given and could be copied. Having served in the army or for the Yuanlao Yuan for more than three years, and holding a rank of second lieutenant or above.

This greatly reduced the number of officers who needed their marriage problem solved. After all, the highest rank among the naturalized citizens was only captain. The rank of second lieutenant and a three-year service period were enough to filter out most people.

As for the marriage problem of the soldiers, it could not be put on the agenda for the time being. However, he had already spoken with Liu Muzhou, hoping that the civil affairs department would regularly organize special “comfort” services for the public. This service would be purchased by the military or paid for as “supporting the army” expenses within the local administrative budget.

Dongmen Chuiyu probably wouldn’t object to this plan. After all, conditions were limited at the moment. Furthermore, allowing soldiers to marry on a large scale would also involve the problem of accompanying families. The Fubo Army was not the US military; they didn’t have the ability to settle all military families near their bases. He placed his cigar in the ashtray and picked up two documents that his staff had drafted the day before.

The first document was about the awarding of a medal to Huang Xiong for his actions in “Operation Engine”: Huang Xiong was to receive a Second-Class Combat Merit Medal. The second document was a disciplinary action against Huang Xiong, revoking the Second-Class Combat Merit Medal he had received in Operation Engine.