“Is it the same as Modu Chanyu?”
The elder pondered for a moment, then finally nodded in affirmation.
“I think I understand… I agree now!”
Someone beside him asked, “But won’t doing this cost a lot of money?”
“Money? Money is the least of our concerns. Our Cao Family Ironworks now accounts for eighty percent of the Han Dynasty’s output. Do you really think it’s because of our ironworking skills?”
The elder in charge of finances scoffed, “If our clan head weren’t one of the Three Excellencies at court, the moment our Cao Family made a few million, our industry would have been swallowed whole by those jealous families. Would we have had the chance to earn so much, like now? Trading some wealth for power is worth it! In these times, power is what truly matters, above all else.”
His words succeeded in persuading all the elders present.
Everyone agreed to Mengde’s plan.
After the meeting ended, Miss Mengde couldn’t help but shake her head with a sigh.
She hadn’t expected that there was someone in the Cao Family this clear-headed.
If only this elder were twenty years younger, Mengde would never let him stay in the family to manage affairs.
She would find a way to recommend him for officialdom.
It was a pity, though.
No matter how alluring a vision Mengde painted for these people, the Han Dynasty had only about ten years left before plunging into the chaos of brain-dead disorder.
By then, who would care about your influence at court or in the provinces? All that would matter was how many troops you held.
So what if the Yang Family had served as Three Excellencies for four generations? They’d still decline alongside the Han.
And the Yuan Family? Their four generations of high office gave Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, Gonglu, a deep foundation, but if they lost on the battlefield, all that awaited them was defeat.
What the Cao Family had painstakingly earned over a decade, spending billions of coins, could be seized in a single victorious battle ten years from now.
***
In the afternoon, after the meeting, Mengde returned to her quarters.
Upon seeing her, Liu Bei approached and asked, “Has everything been settled, Miss?”
“It’s done. Whew… It really is more comfortable to lie down like this.” Mengde reclined on the lounge chair in the courtyard, letting out a contented sigh.
Then she smiled at Liu Bei, “For those northern families participating in this plan, other members of the Cao Family will handle the contacts. But as for the Xiongnu and Xianbei on the steppe, I’ll have to go myself. I’ll have to trouble you to protect me on the road.”
“I am willing to give my life for you, Miss!”
Liu Bei saluted Mengde with utmost seriousness.
“Don’t always talk about dying and such—it sounds unlucky. Don’t say that next time.”
“All right.”
Hearing Mengde’s grumbling, Liu Bei nodded slightly.
Then, Mengde faced the sunlight and dozed off.
Before she knew it, she’d fallen asleep, and only woke when Liu Bei called her for dinner at dusk.
After staying at the Cao Family for a few days—and inspecting the operations of the various workshops inside the fortress—Mengde, Liu Bei, and a convoy with fifty guards set out once more, leaving the Cao Family behind.
This time, they were headed for the territory of the Southern Xiongnu.
The Southern Xiongnu were now stationed in the western part of Bingzhou, which on a modern map would be the Hetao region.
Mengde’s plan was to first travel north to Yanzhou and Jizhou, then head west to Bingzhou, and finally arrive at the Southern Xiongnu’s royal court in Meiji County.
***
Seven days later, Mengde arrived in Puyang County, Yanzhou.
Here, she planned to meet an old acquaintance—none other than Yuan Shao, who had taken up the post of County Magistrate in Puyang a year ago.
However, when she went to the county office to submit her visiting card, the County Deputy brought her unfortunate news.
“Benchu received word of his mother’s passing a month ago and returned home for mourning?”
Mengde exclaimed in surprise.
‘Was there such an event in the original history?’
‘Uh… it seemed there was.’
If that was the case, then Yuan Shao’s ancestral home was in Pingyu County, Runan Commandery, in Yuzhou—just a few days’ journey from Miss Mengde’s own home in Qiao County, Peiguo.
When Yuan Shao returned to Runan a month ago, Mengde had been near Nanyang Commandery on the western side of Yuzhou. The two of them had narrowly missed each other.
“What a coincidence.”
Miss Mengde shook her head helplessly and muttered to herself.
It seemed she wouldn’t be able to meet Yuan Shao this time.
Afterward, she inspected the ironworks the Cao Family had established in Puyang County.
Aside from the fortress, the Cao Family had built ironworks in many locations.
After all, the Cao Family Ironworks could produce nearly one hundred thousand tons of pig iron annually, and the ironworks inside the fortress only accounted for about ten thousand tons—a mere tenth of the total output.
Most of the ironworks were established in Yuzhou and Yanzhou.
After all, in the chaos to come at the end of the Han Dynasty, these two regions would be Mengde’s core areas of control.
By building ironworks here, she would be able to command an annual output of one hundred thousand tons of pig iron as soon as the era of chaos began.
With this capability, every one of her soldiers could be equipped with a full set of iron armor.
Why should she worry about failing to defeat the other warlords, or her ambitions of usurping the Han not prospering?
After indulging in these bright dreams of the future, Mengde and the rest of the convoy continued north, crossing the Yellow River and arriving at Ye City.
In the future, this city would first become the capital of Yuan Shao’s forces, then later, when the original history’s Boss Cao proclaimed himself king, it would become the capital of Wei State.
During the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, many minor states would rise and fall here, each making it their capital in turn.
But for now, Ye City was simply a prosperous city of the north, without the political importance it would later hold.
***
After resting in Ye City for a day or two, Miss Mengde and Liu Bei turned west, heading for Bingzhou.
In early June, Miss Mengde and her group arrived at Jinyang, the capital of Bingzhou, and then made their way to Xihe Commandery.
By mid-June, they finally reached the seat of the Southern Xiongnu royal court—Meiji County.
Because the Xiongnu had no experience building cities, Meiji County quickly fell into decline after becoming their royal court.
It no longer resembled a city at all.
The once bustling city had become a field of great tents on the grasslands.
The old city walls lay in ruins, and the farmland that should have been cultivated had reverted to prairie, providing pasture for the Southern Xiongnu tribes.
As for the local Han people? Because the Southern Xiongnu would rebel from time to time, the Han population had long since migrated to Taiyuan Commandery, Shangdang Commandery, and other more settled areas of Bingzhou.
After all, Bingzhou was vast and sparsely populated, with fewer than a million people over its wide lands.
The common folk could open up farmland wherever they went.
Unlike Yuzhou and other central plains commanderies, where farmers who lost their land had nowhere to flee, and could only become drifters.
It was precisely because displaced farmers in the central plains had nowhere to go and could only become refugees that, when the Yellow Turban Rebellion erupted, Yuzhou and Jizhou became the Yellow Turban Army’s strongholds.
For decades, the Southern Xiongnu had submitted to the Han Dynasty.
Moreover, in the two months since Mengde’s departure, Huangfu Song had already given notice to the Xiongnu Chanyu.
So, when Miss Mengde arrived, the Xiongnu were extremely deferential, immediately inviting the girl into the royal tent for discussions.
At the seat of honor sat a man who looked to be in his forties or fifties, dressed in sheepskin and animal pelts. He greeted Mengde, “So this is the daughter of Han Si Kong, Cao Song—Miss Cao Cao?”
“I am.”
Mengde cupped her hands in salute to the man.