Year 3 of the Xiping Era, which corresponds to 174 AD.
Ten-year-old Mengde was riding in a carriage on the way back to Luoyang.
By the time the convoy reached the outskirts of Luoyang, the sky had already darkened.
As they arrived at a village with a population of several hundred, Mengde suddenly heard the sound of drums and gongs outside the carriage.
She curiously peeked her head out.
“Xiahou Dun, what’s going on out there?”
“Hehe, little sister, looks like someone’s having a wedding feast up ahead!”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
A boy around fourteen or fifteen years old grinned as he spoke, only to be immediately smacked on the head by a large hand.
The one who slapped him looked very similar in appearance but seemed older—around seventeen or eighteen.
After pulling back his hand, he gave Mengde a polite bow.
“Little sister, there’s a family up ahead celebrating a wedding.”
“I see…” Mengde glanced at the darkening sky and said, “We’ve been on the road all day, and everyone must be tired. Let’s spend the night in this village and rest.”
“As for the wedding… why don’t we bring a gift and join the celebration for a bit? If we show goodwill, I’m sure the hosts won’t turn us away. Luoyang is close, but we can head back tomorrow. What do you all think?”
“We’ll follow your lead, little sister,” Xiahou Dun replied after a moment of thought.
“Then it’s settled.”
Mengde made the decision and, with Xiahou Dun’s help, gracefully stepped down from the carriage in her long dress.
The three of them, along with over a dozen guards, walked toward the house hosting the wedding, while the carriage driver and a few others went off to find accommodations for the night.
Because of the high traffic in and out of Luoyang, travelers often needed to stay overnight along the way.
The villagers had long become accustomed to offering lodging in exchange for money.
‘After all, who would turn down some extra income?’
“Careful, little sister.”
Mengde was wearing a long skirt, which made it a bit inconvenient to walk, so Xiahou Dun gently reminded her to watch her step.
Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan were brothers from the Xiahou family, sent to serve Mengde last year.
Contrary to popular belief, Mengde wasn’t actually related to them by blood.
Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan were not her cousins, and Cao Song wasn’t adopted from the Xiahou family but rather from another branch of the Cao clan.
In most cases, adoptions were arranged within the same family.
The Cao family in Qiao County was a wealthy and influential clan with many sons and nephews.
If Cao Teng had wanted to adopt a son, he could have chosen one from within the family without needing to go to the Xiahou clan.
The Xiahou family and the Cao family were connected by marriage.
Together with the Ding family, all three were powerful clans from Qiao County.
For generations, they had intermarried and formed an alliance, controlling every aspect of the region’s affairs.
Mengde’s mother was from the Ding family.
Historically, Cao Cao’s first wife was also a Lady Ding, and her sister married Xiahou Yuan—making the two men brothers-in-law.
That alone shows how deeply intertwined the three families were.
***
It had been six years since the eunuchs’ palace coup.
In those six years, Mengde had expanded the Cao family’s iron and steel industry across most of the Han territory, monopolizing about four-fifths of the entire iron and steel market in China.
And that was after she had intentionally limited production.
The total pig iron output of the Eastern Han Dynasty was just over ten thousand tons annually, but Mengde, using simple blast furnaces from the early Industrial Revolution, easily blew past that number.
Currently, the Cao family’s coal and steel business produced over 20,000 tons of pig iron and more than 1,000 tons of steel per year.
The rest of the empire’s pig iron output had shrunk to just around 5,000 tons.
This monopoly brought the Cao family an unimaginable amount of wealth.
The historical figure Cao Song had spent ten billion copper coins to buy his official rank—now, that same sum was just a few months’ profit for the modern Cao family.
But having so much money became a burden.
The Han Empire’s consumption of iron and steel had already reached its peak.
Without growing other industries alongside it, increasing production would just lead to massive losses. Reinvesting in production was out of the question.
‘What about buying land?’ Cao Song thought it was a good idea, but Mengde, as a transmigrator, had a natural aversion to becoming a feudal landlord.
So, how should the Cao family spend all that money?
After much internal discussion, the decision was made to use the profits to make friends—sharing the wealth with the emperor, their workers, aristocratic families in various commanderies, and even the common people.
Naturally, the Xiahou and Ding families, being long-term allies, received the biggest share of the pie.
They ended up practically becoming vassal families of the Cao clan.
They had initially resisted a little, but the benefits were simply too great to refuse.
To strengthen their alliance even further, both families sent their younger generation to Mengde’s side, forming a small inner circle around her.
***
After a year of careful selection, Mengde chose three trusted companions from the many who were sent.
Two were the Xiahou brothers—Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan.
The third was Ding Gong from the Ding family—not to be confused with “tsundere queen” Kugimiya Rie.
Xiahou Dun was now eighteen, and Xiahou Yuan fifteen.
Neither had yet reached the traditional capping ceremony at age twenty, so they had not been given courtesy names.
Mengde simply called them by their given names.
As for why Mengde had a courtesy name despite not having reached adulthood—well, that was her father’s doing.
He gave her a courtesy name the moment she was born.
What could she have done about it?
Ding Gong, on the other hand, was in his twenties.
The Xiahou brothers were well-known in history.
Ding Gong, though not famous, had an important identity.
He was the elder brother of Cao Cao’s wife—Cao Cao’s brother-in-law.
Cao Cao trusted him deeply and appointed him as Inspector of the Capital Region before the Battle of Guandu.
The title of Inspector of the Capital Region was practically equivalent to a provincial governor.
At that time, Cao Cao directly controlled only four provinces—Yanzhou and Yuzhou were governed by him personally, Xuzhou was semi-autonomous due to repeated massacres by Cao Cao, and Sizhōu was entrusted to Ding Gong.
This shows just how much Cao Cao trusted him.
Unfortunately, history recorded that Ding Gong died of a perforated stomach from excessive drinking before the Battle of Guandu, which is likely why he didn’t become as renowned as the Xiahou brothers.
In addition to these three, other members of the Cao clan were also beginning to appear on the scene.
Cao Ren and Cao Chun were the sons of Cao Chi.
One was seven years old, the other five.
Cao Hong came from a poor branch of the Cao family in Qiao County and had just been born—only two years old.
That family was in dire straits, and Mengde suspected it was this poverty that later shaped Cao Hong’s famously stingy personality.
To help, she arranged for the entire family to work at the Cao family’s ironworks.
Two months’ wages from the ironworks equaled half a year of farming income.
Thanks to this, their lives improved dramatically.
Mengde could only hope that the improved circumstances would lead to a more generous Cao Hong in the future.
***
Mengde and her entourage of more than ten people arrived outside the home where the wedding was taking place.
Their sudden arrival naturally startled the household, and before long, the man of the house came out to inquire.
“May I ask what brings you brave travelers to our humble home?”
“……”
Mengde looked at her current height—barely over a meter tall—and couldn’t help but twitch her lips.
‘A strong warrior?’
‘Do I look like a strong warrior to you?’
Crossing her arms in frustration, she shouted, “Hey! Uncle! I’m the leader of these ten or so people behind me!”
“Huh?”
The man of the house looked down in surprise, then saw Mengde—a little girl whose head barely reached his waist.
He glanced again at the group behind her: Xiahou Dun and the others.
“This young lady is…?”
“She’s our leader,” Xiahou Dun said with a shrug, nodding out of habit.
By now, he was already used to situations like this.
Mengde might be young, but she was indeed the one leading this group of over ten people.
After all, the girl was just too clever.
The man of the house immediately smiled and apologized to Mengde.
“Ah, sorry, sorry! I didn’t see you earlier, young lady. Please don’t take offense.”
“……”
‘Didn’t see me?’
‘Why does that somehow feel even more insulting?’
Mengde’s lips twitched again, but she managed to suppress her irritation.
She cupped her hands in a polite gesture and said, “I am Cao Cao, courtesy name Mengde. We’ve just returned to Luoyang from afar. After a long journey, we happened to pass by your home and saw that a wedding is being held. We came to ask if we might enjoy a cup of wedding wine—of course, we’ll pay for it.”
“Of course, of course,” the man said with a smile and nod.
“I am Lü Cai, courtesy name Boshe. If Miss would like to join the celebration, it would be an honor for our humble household. Please, come in.”
Had it just been Xiahou Dun and the others who asked to enter and drink, Lü Cai likely wouldn’t have agreed so easily.
After all, who could tell whether this group of burly men were bandits or ruffians from another region? If he let them into the house and they caused trouble after drinking, the entire wedding could be ruined.
But with Mengde there, everything was different.
Her young appearance was far too disarming, making people instinctively lower their guard.
Besides, since these grown men were willingly following her commands, they were most likely bodyguards from a noble household—not drunkards or thugs.
With that, Lü Cai felt much more at ease allowing them inside.
Mengde stepped through the door of the Lü residence.
But halfway in, she suddenly realized something.
‘Lü Cai… courtesy name Boshe?’
‘Lü Boshe?’
‘Could this be the same Lü Boshe I supposedly killed in the original timeline?’
Her lips twitched again.
She looked up and carefully studied Lü Boshe’s face.
Right now, Lü Boshe looked to be in his thirties.
His eldest son, who had just gotten married, was eighteen.
In another ten or so years—by the time she would assassinate Dong Zhuo—Lü Boshe would be in his fifties.
It matched up perfectly.
‘Yup. No doubt about it. The man in front of me is the same Lü Boshe from history, the one I killed…’
Having made that connection, Miss Mengde felt a little guilty as she walked further into the Lü household.
Meanwhile, Xiahou Dun, his brother, and the others remained blissfully unaware of the historical weight of this encounter.
They happily joined the festivities and cheered along with the other guests when the bride entered the house.
The banquet quickly moved into its later stages.