Ye was a city in ancient China. It was strategically important and served as the headquarters of a number of warlords toward the end of the Han Dynasty, including Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. Extensive excavations have been made on the ruins of the city in recent years and Chinese historians have been able to make detailed plans of the site. Han commanderies and kingdoms AD 2. ... Portrait of Yuan Shao from a Qing Dynasty edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. ... Cáo Cāo (曹操, pronounced Tsao Tsao) (155-220), courtesy name Mèngdé (孟德), was the self-appointed Imperial Secretarist of the Han Dynasty and the de facto ruler of Northern China (as the Kingdom of Wei) during the beginning of the period of Three Kingdoms. ...