 liu chih (chinese: åå³; pinyin: liu zhi; 1892â1971) was a prominent kuomintang military and political leader in the republic of china. ==biography== liu was born into a peasant family in jiangxi province in 1892. his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandfather. he was educated in a local school before travelling to japan to receive advanced education. when the japanese government started to expel chinese students on behalf of the manchurian imperial government, he return to china and enrolled in military academies in wuhan. in 1914 he entered the baoding military academy and after services in numerous regional armies, liu joined the faculty of the whampoa military academy in 1924 and became a field commander during the northern expedition. he became friends with many important allies of generallissimo chiang kai shek and they proved to be extremely helpful to his rise in the kmt government. ==rise and fall in the kmt government== he was instrumental in defeating chiang's rival warlords in the central plains war and expanding kmt military power throughout the 1930s by defeating chinese communist forces in henan province. chiang kai shek rewarded him by appointing as governor of hennan province and named a county after him. when the second sino-japanese war broke out, liu was named as deputy commander of the first war zone and commander-in-chief of the 2nd army group. by this time he seemed to gradually lost his military prowess when the imperial japanese army easily overwhelmed his forces and breakthrough the chinese defensive lines despite being greatly outnumbered. liu was forced to abandon much of hebei province in north china and this defeat contributed to the 1938 yellow river flood and he was relieved from his posts by chiang. when the nationalist government retreated to chongking, chiang again named him as commander of the city's air defense, when but the japanese air force started the bombing of chongking, liu proved to ineffective to provide much leadership to stop the japanese terror raids and raise civilian morale, plus dismissed in 1942. in 1942 he succeeded general li zongren as commander-in-chief of the fifth war zone. when war with japan w
1892_births 1971_deaths Baoding_Military_Academy_cadets Chinese_people_of_World_War_II National_Revolutionary_Army_generals_from_Jiangxi People_from_Ji\'an Politicians_of_the_Republic_of_China_on_Taiwan Recipients_of_the_Order_of_Blue_Sky_and_White_Sun Republic_of_China_politicians_from_Jiangxi