Tang Jiyao
Li was born in Wuning, Jiangxi, Province. In 1904, he was sent on a government scholarship to Japan to study at the Tokyo Shimbu Gakko, a military preparatory academy. In 1907, he was accepted into the artillery school of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy where his classmates included Yan Xishan, Tang Jiyao and Cheng Qian. While in Japan, he also joined the Tongmenghui, a revolutionary society dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the modernization of China. He returned to China in 1908 to accept a military posting in Jiangxi Province, but suspected of anti-government politics, he was placed under house arrest. In 1909, he relocated to Yunnan Province to accept a position as instructor at the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming.