 Zheng and Xu advised Empress Dowager Hu to poison Emperor Xiaoming, and she did so.She, after initially declaring a child of Emperor Xiaoming emperor, soon admitted that the child was a daughter, not a son, and therefore ineligible for the throne.She then declared Yuan Zhao, a two-year-old child and son of Yuan Baohui (元寶暉) the Prince of Lintao (a distant cousin of Emperor Xiaoming), emperor.