What was the end of the anti-gold famous li gang?

In the first month of the first year of Jing Kang (1126 CE), the Jin Army's Eastern Route Army, while attacking the cities of Zhongshan and Zhending (present-day Zhengding, Hebei), invaded the south of Yuecheng, Lianke Xinde Province (present-day Xingtai, Henan), Xiangzhou (present-day Anyang, Henan), and Junzhou (浚州, in present-day Junxian County, Henan). The Song general He Guan, who was in charge of defending the Yellow River, saw that the Jin army was difficult to resist, so he led his army to burn the Yellow River pontoon bridge and fled away, making the Jin army easily cross the Yellow River. The general of the Jin Army said: "The Southern Dynasty (Song Dynasty) can be described as no one, if there are one or two thousand people, how can my generation cross it!" Fearing that he would become a prisoner of the Jin army, Emperor Huizong of Song fled Tokyo under the pretext of going to the Taoist Temple of Taiqing Palace in Bozhou, Anhui Province, and fled Tokyo with Tong Guan, Cai You, and others. Emperor Qinzong of Song appointed Wu Min as the Privy Council and Li Gang to remain in Tokyo. However, Prime Minister Bai Shizhong persuaded Song Qinzong to flee south, and after being dissuaded by Li Gang, Bai Shizhong was deposed, and Li Gang was promoted to the position of consul and pro-conscription envoy, the second minister Li Bangyan was promoted to prime minister, and Zhang Bangchang was promoted to second minister. After the JinDongLu Army arrived at Kaifeng City, on the one hand, it attacked the city and demanded that the Northern Song Dynasty cede the three provinces of Taiyuan, Zhongshan, and Hejian to the Jin State before agreeing to negotiate peace. Li Gang led the Northern Song army and people to repel the attack of the Jin army several times, and several divisions of the "King of Qin" were also on the way to rescue Tokyo, and all the houses and grain outside Tokyo were demolished and moved by the Northern Song Dynasty in advance, and the Jin army lacked supplies and was already in an unfavorable situation. However, Emperor Qinzong of Song was determined to make peace, agreed to the conditions of the Jin people, ceded the three provinces of Taiyuan, Zhongshan, and Hejian to the Jin State, and sent the prince and the prime minister as hostages into the Jin camp. Li Gang refused to cede the Three Provinces to the Jin Dynasty and withheld the edict of ceding the Three Provinces. At this time, 280,000 reinforcements from the "King of Qin" led by Zhong Shidao and Yao Pingzhong arrived one after another. Yao Pingzhong prepared to attack the Jin camp at night, but due to the leak of information, the sneak attack failed. Emperor Qinzong of Song placed the blame for the sneak attack on Li Gang, who had nothing to do with it, dismissed him from office, and then sent someone with an edict to the Camp to plead guilty. Although Emperor Qinzong of Song ceded the Three Provinces to the Jin, the people of the Three Provinces refused to be edicted and insisted on resisting.

After Li Gang was deposed, Song Qinzong was worried that his stay at the imperial court would affect the overall situation of peace negotiations, so he expelled Li Gang from the imperial court in June, served as an envoy to Hedong and Hebei, and led an army to relieve the siege of Taiyuan. However, due to Li Gang's vain name of moderation, these generals only listened to the edicts and did not obey Li Gang's dispatches at all, so there was no way to talk about relieving the siege of Taiyuan. After that, Emperor Qinzong of Song tried his best to make peace and ordered Li Gang to stop the advance. In August, Wu Minzhong, the second minister who had supported Song Qinzong to the throne with Li Gang, was deposed and demoted. Soon after, Li Gang was also charged with "making peace with the lord and losing his teacher and paying money", and was first demoted to Jianchang Army (present-day Southwest City, Jiangxi) for resettlement, and then transferred to Who Prefecture (夔州, in modern Fengjie, Chongqing). Li Gang was a staunch main war faction, and Song Qinzong's charge of imposing "exclusive lords and peacemakers" was really a big fool in the world.

After Emperor Gaozong of Song ascended the throne, Li Gang was reinstated as Xiang. Before Emperor Gaozong of Song succeeded to the throne, he wrote to Li Gang: "Fang is anxious to hang the fate of the people in this life, and forgive the talents of the world, so why should they help in the work." After he succeeded to the throne, he had intended to appoint Li Gang as the left minister, but under the opposition of the traitorous ministers Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan, he was changed to the right minister, and the position of left minister was vacant. Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan's reason for opposition was that "Li Gang is good at using soldiers, and now he is summoned, and he is afraid that the people of Jin will not be happy." At that time, the court of the Southern Song Dynasty had just been established, and "the people of the world looked forward to it", only Li Gang was alone. Song Gaozong also urgently needed talents like Li Gang to help him stabilize the situation. However, from the heart of Song Gaozong, he feared gold like a tiger, and had no intention of recovering the lost land at all, but only wanted to reach peace with Jin and form a situation of partial peace. Therefore, he agreed with Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan.

Li Gang arrived at Yingtianfu on June 1, 1127, the first year of Jianyan.com. He knew that Emperor Gaozong of Song did not want to sincerely resist Jin, and when he met the emperor, he said: "Your Majesty's fate, between the jin people's likes and dislikes, hopes that the holy worries will be punished." Song Gaozong replied, "Determined to use Qing!" ”

After Li Gang took office, he "had a clear sense of righteousness, was extremely talented, and had an end in his work," "took on the weight of the world with one body," and "took it as his duty to cultivate the inside and outside world." Li Gang summed up the bitter lessons of the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, examined the comparison of Song Jin's strength, and proposed a series of countermeasures to Emperor Gaozong of Song. There are four main points, the first is to resolutely resist the Jin and oppose peace; the second is to punish the officials of the surrender faction; the third is to refresh the administration of officials, rectify the maladministration, and strengthen war readiness; the fourth is to send officials to Hebei and Hedong to be responsible for recovering the two places, supporting and contacting the rebels who have lost land in the north, and jointly resisting the Jin.

Zhu Xi gave a very high evaluation of Li Gang's actions during his period, saying: "When Fang Nanjing was founded, there was no discipline at all. Since Li Gong came in, straightened out, and the strategy became a court appearance! However, due to Emperor Gaozong of Song's decision to seek peace with Jin, favoring the traitorous ministers Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan, and vigorously opposing the south to escape from the enemy, Li Gang was gradually tolerated by Emperor Gaozong of Song. The general policy formulated by Li Gang was also rejected and perfunctory by Emperor Gaozong of Song, especially the emperor's insistence on abolishing the Hebei West Road Recruitment Department and the Hedong Economic System Division, which was actually preparing to give up the land north of the Great River. Li Gang wrote a letter of advice, but Emperor Gaozong of Song ignored it. At this time, Zhang Jun, an official recommended by Huang Qianshan, came forward to impeach Li Gang, and Li Gang felt that it was difficult to do anything wrong and could only offer his resignation.

Although Emperor Gaozong of Song hypocritically retained Li Gang, his remarks on dismissal said that Li Gang was "frenzied and reckless" and "divided his talents and foolishness with joy and anger, and rewarded and punished him for his sins of merit," and so on, and expressed unusual disgust for Li Gang. After that, he was belittled by Emperor Gaozong of Song three times, and finally exiled to Hainan Island. This was the most severe punishment of the Song Dynasty for degrading officials. Li Gang was only seventy-five days old, and finally ended in frustration.

On February 5, 1140, the tenth year of Shaoxing (1140 AD), Li Gang died of illness at the age of fifty-eight.