Narrowly avoiding capture by Jin forces, he escaped first to Yangzhou and then Lin'an (the modern day Hangzhou), assuming the throne and re-establishing the Song court.

Prior to 1141, military commanders including Han Shizhong and Yue Fei reconquered portions of the Central Plains while chancellors like Lü Yihao, Zhao Ding, Zhang Jun, and Qin Hui managed the civil bureaucracy.

Furthermore, it served to preclude the return of Emperor Qinzong, who remained in captivity in Jin and whose release could have jeopardized Gaozong's claim to the throne.

Gaozong and Qin then secured court control over the military, forcing Han Shizhong and the general Zhang Jun into retirement and executing Yue Fei on trumped-up charges.

Despite his successes as emperor, Gaozong's treatment of Yue, who was remembered as a culture hero, and his surrender of over half of Song China to the enemy, marred his reputation in both traditional historiography and popular memory.

Despite his abdication, Gaozong retained de facto control of state affairs as retired emperor, continuing to oversee the dynasty until dying of natural causes in 1187, at the age of 80.

He was ordered to the Jurchen camp to negotiate peace by Qinzong in an effort to end the siege early but Zhao Gou was held for ransom.

After his half-brother and father and the capital were captured by forces of the Jurchen-led Jin Empire in the Jingkang Incident in 1127 along with majority of the imperial clan members due to his predecessors' incompetence and the imperial court's corruption, he escaped to Southern China due to being in Cizhou for a diplomatic mission and therefore, not in Bianjing.

This can be traced to Zhang's execution and the submission of Da Chu to Song, which ultimately caused the Jin to renew their attacks and quickly conquer Northern China.

[10][11] On March 26, 1129, Gaozong lost his throne to a mutiny that was instigated by the palace guards led by Miao Fu (苗傅) and Liu Zhengyan (劉正彥).

The plot came to an abrupt end less than a month later on April 20, 1129, when Miao and Liu were defeated by Gaozong's loyal army, led by Han Shizhong, and were both executed for treason.

[14] The Jin seized Hangzhou on January 22 and then Shaoxing further south on February 4 where Emperor Gaozong was almost captured by Wuzhu at Mingzhou near Lin'an but Zhang Jun, another general who briefly halted the Jin advance, giving Emperor Gaozong the chance to flee the city by ship.

[15] After they plundered the undefended cities of Hangzhou and Suzhou, they finally started to face resistance from Song armies led by Yue Fei and Han Shizhong.

After the Song forces defeated the Jin, they stayed north of the Yangzi River, and Emperor Gaozong declared the city of Lin'an as the dynasty's new temporary capital, replacing Kaifeng in 1133.

[19] The Jurchens believed that this state, nominally ruled by someone of Han Chinese descent, would be able to attract the allegiance of disaffected members of the insurgency.

The armies of Qi and Jin won a series of victories in the Huai Valley, but were repelled by Han Shizhong near Yangzhou and by Yue Fei at Luzhou (廬州, modern Hefei).

[22] The Da Qi lost a battle at Outang (藕塘), in modern Anhui, against a Song army led by Yang Qizhong (楊沂中).

The victory boosted Song morale, and the military commissioner Zhang Jun convinced Emperor Gaozong to begin plans for a counterattack.

Emperor Gaozong initially agreed, but he quickly abandoned the counteroffensive when an officer named Li Qiong (酈瓊) killed his superior official and defected to the Jin with tens of thousands of soldiers.

[23] When Emperor Gaozong was eventually told of the death of Huizong and Empress Zheng in 1137, he reportedly reacted quite severely, ordering an extended period of mourning.

After Yue Fei's return to the capital, Emperor Gaozong and Qin Hui imprisoned him on a trumped-up charge under "groundless" (Chinese: 莫須有; pinyin: mò xū yǒu) and had him put to death.

[32] The negotiation allowed the emperor's mother and other selected members of the imperial clan (including a woman claimed to be his half-sister Princess Roufu (Zhao Duofu), whom he later sentenced to death under suspicion of impersonating an imperial princess) to return to Song; Empress Wei was then named Empress Dowager in Southern Song.

People would later blame the emperor for Yue Fei's death and vilify him as a hypocritical tyrant who sought to solidify power at the expense of greater danger to Song.

In addition, with the southern part of China remaining under Song control, the transport of goods became more cost-effective by boat via the streams and camels criss-crossing the region.

[36] During the early Shaoxing period of Emperor Gaozong, Hu Meng, Deputy Director of the Bureau of General Accounts, requested the court to issue an edict to promote tax collectors who exceeded their targets to raise military funds.