should enter through Fukou [(滏口, in modern Handan, Hebei)] into Tang's weak spot. Connect your camps and capture the area north of the Taihang Mountains. This, combined with Tujue's pillages against Guanzhong [(Tang's capital region)], will force Tang forces to withdraw to save themselves. Why worry that you cannot lift the siege on Luoyang? If you remain here, the officers and the soldiers will all be tired, and you will spend much material, and you will not be successful. Dou, however, responded: You women will not understand this. We came to save Luoyang, which is in dire straits and about to fall. If we abandon it and leave, we show that we are fearful of the enemy and turning our back on faith and righteousness. I cannot do this. He therefore continued to progress toward Luoyang, and he engaged Li at the Battle of Hulao. Li defeated and captured him, and Wang surrendered. Li took both Dou and Wang back to Chang'an to be presented to his father Emperor Gaozu of Tang, who executed Dou. The Xia forces withdrew to the Xia capital at Mingzhou (present-day Guangfu) and considered declaring Dou's adopted son as prince. The official Qi Shanxing (齊善行), however, persuaded the others that further resistance would be futile, and the treasures that the Xia state had previously obtained were distributed to the soldiers, who were then disbanded. Qi, the former Sui official Pei Ju, and Empress Cao's brother Cao Dan (曹旦) then accompanied her, carrying the treasures and the imperial seals Dou took after defeating Yuwen, and they surrendered to Tang forces. Nothing further was said about her in history. Notes Sui dynasty people Tang dynasty people Chinese empresses Year of birth unknown 7th-century deaths Transition from Sui to Tang 7th-century Chinese women 7th-century Chinese people