Among the founding lieutenant generals of New China, there were some highly qualified generals who had served as the head of the front army during the Red Army period, but during the Period of The War of Resistance and Liberation, the achievements were not outstanding and their promotion was slow. Among them, Ni Zhiliang is one of the most typical representatives.
Ni Zhiliang, graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy in his early years, received professional military knowledge. In 1927, after Chiang Kai-shek launched a counter-revolutionary coup, he participated in the Guangzhou Uprising with his troops, thus officially embarking on the revolutionary road. Ni Zhiliang joined the party very early, joining the organization in 1926, two years before Peng Dehuaidu.
On the march of the revolution, he broke away from the large army due to illness, and after recovering from his wounds, he engaged in armed struggle in the localities, and pulled up a guerrilla group of the Red Army in northeast Hubei, and he served as the leader. In 1929, he was incorporated into the Red Fourth Front, and he successively served as a brigade leader, detachment leader, regimental commander, and division commander.
In 1932, the main force of the Red Fourth Front army withdrew to the west and expanded the army, he was promoted from division commander to the chief of staff of the Fourth Front, the head of the General Supply Department, and other positions, and many generals, lieutenant generals, and major generals of the Four Fronts were once his subordinates, such as Chen Xilian, Chen Zaidao, Xu Shiyou, Wang Jinshan, Zhong Wei, and so on.
In 1936, it was a turning point in his life, after the Red Fourth Front met the division, the Red Fourth Front paid a lot of money because of the problem of zhang route. After arriving in northern Shaanxi in 1937, he, who served as the chief of staff of the Fourth Front, went to kang da to study. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he only served as chief of staff of the 129th Division.
Not long after, this position was replaced by Li Da, who was transferred to the Jinji-Jiyu region to open up a base area and served as the commander of the military region. It was not until 1941 that he was transferred back to Yan'an as deputy director of the Fourth Bureau of the Central Military Commission.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yan'an marched to the northeast, and he was ordered to the northeast, where he served as commander of the Northern Liaoning Military Region, commander of the Jijiang Military Region, commander of the Nenjiang Military Region, and vice president of the Northeast Military and Political University. Later, he accompanied the main force of Shiye to the central and southern regions and served as the vice president of the Central China Military and Political University.
It can be said that Ni Zhiliang did not command the war in the front-line troops during the liberation period, although he initially served as the commander of the military region, but it was more about the handling of various affairs of the military region, and after 1947, he transferred to the education front.
After the founding of New China, according to his seniority during the Red Army period, he should at least be a general or a general, but in the three periods, according to the final position, he was rated as a quasi-corps and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Many of his old subordinates have made many military achievements during the War of Resistance and Liberation, and many of them have become his superiors and have also been rated by him.
Later, Ni Zhiliang died of illness in 1965 due to physical reasons during the war years, at the age of 65.