Her husband, herself, and her sons would all die at the hands of the warlord Zhu Quanzhong, who would eventually take over the Tang throne and establish his own Later Liang.
[9] In 900, there was an incident where Emperor Zhaozong, after getting drunk, killed a few eunuchs — which led to immediate violent reaction by the powerful eunuch Liu Jishu, one of the two commanders of the eunuch-controlled Shence Armies, who took the Shence Army soldiers into the palace to force him to abdicate and pass the throne to Li Yu.
Less than two months later, when a group of Shence Army officers loyal to Emperor Zhaozong, led by Sun Dezhao (孫德昭), Dong Yanbi (董彥弼), and Zhou Chenghui (周承誨), killed Liu and his fellow Shence Army commander Wang Zhongxian (王仲先), it was at Empress He's advice that Emperor Zhaozong first verified that Liu and Wang were dead before exiting Shaoyang Pavilion to resume the throne.
[11] Emperor Zhaozong, however, subsequently resisted advice from the Tang dynasty chancellor, Cui Yin to wrest control of the Shence Armies from the eunuchs and put them under the command of the chancellors; instead, he commissioned the eunuchs Han Quanhui and Zhang Yanhong (張彥弘) as the new commanders of the Shence Armies.
However, during the journey to Luoyang, Emperor Zhaozong tried to slow down the trip with the reason that Empress He had just given birth and could not travel fast — so that he could try to send out secret emissaries to other major warlords Wang Jian the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan), Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), and Yang Xingmi the military governor of Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu) — to no avail, as Zhu forced him to progress quicker to Luoyang.
When Jiang relayed these remarks to Zhu, Zhu became more apprehensive of the emperor, as well as the fact that at this time, the warlords who were resisting him (including Li Maozhen, Li Jihui, Li Keyong, Wang Jian, Yang, Zhao Kuangning the military governor of Zhongyi Circuit (忠義, headquartered in modern Xiangyang, Hubei), and Liu Rengong the military governor of Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing)) were all ostensibly claiming that they wanted to restore the emperor's powers and return him to Chang'an.
In the autumn of 904, he sent his adoptive son Zhu Yougong (朱友恭) and the officer Shi Shucong (氏叔琮) with soldiers to the palace.
They killed Emperor Zhaozong and the imperial consorts Pei Zhenyi (裴貞一) and Li Jianrong (李漸榮); Empress He was spared only after she begged for her life from Jiang.
Jiang advocated slowing down the process to try to get the people of the empire to gradually accept the coming transition from Tang to a new dynasty, and this displeased Zhu.
Meanwhile, Empress Dowager He was having her ladies in waiting Aqiu (阿秋) and Aqian (阿虔) passing messages between her and Jiang, begging him to have her life and that of the young emperor spared when the transition would occur.
This led to Wang Yin (王殷) and Zhao Yinheng falsely accusing Jiang being in a conspiracy with the empress dowager to restore Tang imperial power.