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.

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.

Li returned to Jiangxi on hearing of the Wuchang Uprising and was appointed commander of the pro-republican forces in Jiujiang in Xinhai Revolution.

Yunnan warlord Cai E placed Li in command of one of his three armies, and assigned him the task of taking Guangxi Province during the National Protection War against Yuan Shikai.

The war came to an end with Yuan Shikai’s death in 1916, and Li was able to return via Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1917 at the invitation of Sun Yatsen to accept promotion to field marshal and the post of chief of staff of the Constitutional Protection Movement.