  We study 2-flavor Hamiltonian lattice QCD in (1+1)D with hardcore gluons, at
zero and finite density, by means of matrix product states. We introduce a
formulation of the theory where gauge redundancy is absent and construct a
gauge invariant tensor network ansatz. We show that the model is critical in an
extended subregion of parameter space and identify at least two distinct
phases, one of which embeds the continuum limit location. We reconstruct a
subset of the particle spectrum in each phase, identifying edge and bulk
gapless modes. We thereby show that the studied model provides a minimal SU(3)
gauge theory whilst reproducing known phenomena of (3+1)D QCD. Most notably, it
features charged pions.
