It appeared that she had no son, but had at least one daughter, the future Princess of Wei, then of Jin, who married Li Siyuan's subordinate officer Shi Jingtang.
[4] Either that year (as stated by the New History of the Five Dynasties)[3] or later, in 928 (as stated in the annals of Li Siyuan's reign in the History of the Five Dynasties,[5] which otherwise lacked biographical information for her in its biographies for Later Tang empresses[6]), she was given the imperial consort title Shufei (淑妃).
They also wanted to summon their ally, the eunuch Meng Hanqiong, who was then temporarily overseeing the governance of Tianxiong Circuit (天雄, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei), back to Luoyang.
However, at that time, many generals who were transferred met ill fates, and Li Congke feared that these actions were intended against him.
Li Congke's associates who came to Luoyang with him from Fengxiang mostly advocated keeping Shi at Luoyang, but the imperial scholars Han Zhaoyin and Li Zhuanmei (李專美) both advocated sending Shi back to Hedong, believing that if Li Congke did not do so, both Zhao Yanshou (who had also married a sister of Li Congke's and who was then serving as the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan)) and Zhao's adoptive father Zhao Dejun the military governor of Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) would be fearful that they would be targeted next.
Subsequently, Shi used the daughter-mother relationship between his wife (who had then been created the Grand Princess of Jin) and Empress Dowager Cao to bribe Empress Dowager Cao's attendants to spy on the events of Li Congke's court.
"[9] In 936, Shi, after Li Congke issued an edict transferring him to Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong), rebelled, and, allying with the Khitan Empire's Emperor Taizong, defeated the Later Tang troops that Li Congke sent against him.
Believing that defeat was inevitable, Li Congke gathered his family members, including Empress Dowager Cao, and a group of officers still loyal to him, to commit suicide by fire.
Empress Dowager Cao rejected her overture, stating:[1] My son, grandson, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters, have reached this point.
You, sister, protect yourself.Consort Dowager Wang and her adoptive son Li Congyi the Prince of Xu, as well as Li Congyi's younger sister, thus hid at a polo field and did not participate in the mass suicide, but Empress Dowager Cao joined and died in the mass suicide.