The famous general Li Gang was one of the main anti-Jin factions in the Northern Song Dynasty
Li Gang was one of the few ** who protected Bianliang in Tokyo in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and resolutely resisted the Jin soldiers in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. He wanted to save his country from danger, but he was born at the wrong time. there was no room for him at the court of surrender, so he was repeatedly excommunicated and deposed, repeatedly deposed and then deposed again, and finally died in solitude in fuzhou.
He tried to save the situation, but by the time he got up, the Northern Song Dynasty had already perished.
Li Shimin was born in Huating, Xiuzhou (now Songjiang, Shanghai) in the sixth year of Xining (1083), and was a jinshi in the second year of Zhenghe (1112). Soon, due to the mistakes of discussing the government, he was dismissed from the Taifu Siqing and reappointed as a foreigner.
Li Gang entered the court as an official at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the court was in disrepair, the government was chaotic, Li Gang repeatedly wrote to the emperor to ask for the reform of the government malpractice, regardless of personal gains and losses, and severely punish the traitors in the court, but Li Gang's actions were soon counterattacked by the traitors, and eventually led to the expulsion of the tax inspectors of Nanjianzhou and Shaxian.
In the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), Li Gang was reinstated and appointed as the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple. In the winter of that year, the Jin soldiers tore up the peace treaty and attacked the Song Dynasty from two directions, and Wanyan Zongbi's Eastern Route Army marched to Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty. The Jin soldiers' attack turned the palace upside down. On the one hand, Song Huizong appointed the crown prince Zhao Huan as the prefect of Kaifeng, attacked the Jin soldiers, and dealt with the crisis, and on the other hand, he made another move"Edict of self-reproach", expressing his admitting mistakes and apologizing to the world. But he was thinking about how to escape all the time.
At the critical juncture, Li Gang offered himself to Song Huizong"Righteousness is used to win the hearts of the people, listening to words is used to unite the hearts of the army, money and grain are stored for military reserves, and the order is respected by respecting the country's prestige, and favors are given to eliminate public grievances"The five of the royal looks, and raised the anti-gold"Ten strategies to defend against the enemy"。Seeing that Song Huizong was determined to escape, they together with Prime Minister Wu Min asked Song Huizong to give up the throne to the crown prince Zhao Huan.
After Song Qinzong ascended the throne, Li Gang was promoted to Shangshu Youcheng, and concurrently served as the envoy of the expedition, responsible for the defense of Kaifeng. Li Gang commanded the Kaifeng army and civilians to complete the defensive deployment in time, and personally went to the city to supervise the battle and repelled the Jin soldiers. Seeing that it was difficult to capture Kaifeng, the commander of the Jin army, Wanyanzong, drew up a surrender plan, and an atmosphere of humiliation and betrayal permeated the Song court. Li Gang was dismissed by Song Qinzong because of his resolute opposition to the cession of land to gold. Song Qinzong deposed Li Gang because of his firm opposition to the cession of land to the Jin dynasty. In February 1126, the Song court agreed to cede the three towns of Hebei, but Wanyan Zongbi failed to capture Kaifeng and withdrew his troops. The Battle of Kaifeng was won under the leadership of Li Gang.
In May of the first year of Jingkang (1126), shortly after the retreat of the Jin army, Li Gang was immediately ostracized and framed by the capitulation faction, and was demoted by the imperial court to the envoy of Hedong and Hebei Jiedu, and was forced to resign in September of the first year of Jingkang (1126), which was later added"Specializing in war, harming teachers and losing their ways"Crimes. In September of the first year of Jingkang (1126), he was forced to resign, and was later added"Monographing military affairs, losing divisions"Crimes.
But the funny thing is that Li Gang was soon deposed, the Jin soldiers went south to besiege Kaifeng, and Song Qinzong was captured before he could reuse Li Gang, and Li Gang was appointed as a scholar by the senior palace scholar to manage the affairs of Kaifeng Prefecture, but when Li Gang got this order, the Northern Song Dynasty had disappeared.
He wanted to save the country from a crisis, but the court wouldn't allow him to do so.
Jianyan Nandu"Later, King Kang Zhao Gou rebuilt the Southern Song Dynasty in Yingtianfu in Nanjing, and in May of the first year of Jianyan (1127), Li Gang was reinstated as the right servant of Shangshu and the servant of Zhongshu.
After Li Gang took office, he fully assisted Song Gaozong in rectifying the dynasty, reorganizing the army, and adjusting the defense line, and made important contributions to stabilizing the situation in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the process of reviving the dynasty, Li Gang also fought against Wang Boyan, Huang Qianshan and other traitorous factions in the DPRK and China, and strongly advocated it"Stop all peace talks", demanding severe punishment of Zhang Benchang and others for the Song Dynasty **.
In order to stabilize the situation and prevent the Jin soldiers from moving south again, he suggested that Zong Ze, an accomplice who remained in Tokyo, go to Kaifeng and rebuild the fortifications; He also advocated the establishment of the Hebei Recruitment Division and the Hedong Economic Strategy System to support the military and civilian resistance to Jin, and suggested that Zhang He and Fu Liang serve as the deputies of the Hebei Recruitment Division and the Hedong Economic Strategy System. In view of the corruption in the military and government and the unclear rewards and punishments since the Northern Song Dynasty, he also announced a new 21 military system, launched military and political rectification, and proposed to build commanders along the rivers, along the Huai, and along the rivers to implement in-depth defense.
However, Li Gang has been regarded as a difficult person since he was a prime minister. Yushi Yan Yi once said:"Li Gang is harmful to the Jin people and should not be a prime minister. Even Fan Zongyin, a rightist strategist, said: ."Li Gang's name is greater than his reality, and he is easy to intimidate the powerful, so he cannot be a prime minister. Shoufu Fan Zongyin also said:'Li Gang's name is greater than his reality, and he has the ability to shake the monarch's power, so he cannot be a minister. In the hated dynasty of the Shunming faction, when the situation in the Southern Song Dynasty was slightly stable, Li Gang was dismissed and taken out of the imperial court, and his career as prime minister lasted only seventy-five days in total.
Since then, Li Gang has been repeatedly postponed, postponed and reinstated, the sea of eunuchs has been up and down, and the eunuchs are rampant, and finally left this heart to serve the court, defected to the ministers, and gradually became disheartened. In the first month of the ninth year of Shaoxing (1139), after the Song and Jin negotiations, Song Gaozong planned to reuse Li Gang as the ambassador to pacify Tanzhou and Jinghu South Road.
On the Shangyuan Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month of the tenth year of Shaoxing (1140), Li Gang went to pay tribute to his brother who had passed away for many years, and he was so sad that he cried blind and died suddenly at the age of fifty-eight.