As we all know, Hu Zongnan, as the "first protégé of Tianzi", has always been known for his rapid promotion speed in the Whampoa Military Academy, but in fact, before Hu Zongnan, there was a person who was promoted earlier and faster than him, and this person was Li Zhilong.
Li Zhilong was a first-term student of Huangpu, and he was the only student representative of the current period, and he could serve as the executive committee member of the military academy party department together with Chiang Kai-shek and other leading figures.
Therefore, after Li Zhilong graduated, he was immediately arranged to serve as the director of the political department of the Naval Bureau of the Nationalist Government, and also served as the director of the Naval Staff Office, leading to the rank of major general. It should be known that Hu Zongnan also started step by step from the second lieutenant, and Li Zhilong directly skipped the lieutenant level and the school level. And only a few months later, Li Zhilong was promoted to acting director of the Naval Bureau, and the rank was also promoted to lieutenant general, and it should be noted that Chiang Kai-shek was only a lieutenant general at that time.
Although Chiang Kai-shek did not say anything, he was actually very unhappy about the fact that his own student was at the same level as himself, so he made himself a special general in 1935, so that no one would be at the same level as himself in the future.
Compared with Li Zhilong, Hu Zongnan only became the deputy commander of the major general in 1927 and was elected lieutenant general in 1935, which is a full nine years later than Li Zhilong. However, since then, Hu Zongnan's military career has been unmatched, and he has become the commander of the First Army in just one year, which is also the first commander among the Huangpu students. Three years later, he was promoted to commander-in-chief of the Thirty-fourth Army, becoming the first commander-in-chief among the Whampoa students. In 1944, Hu Zongnan was promoted to commander of the First Theater of Operations, and he was the only commander of the theater among the students of Huangpu.
So why did Li Zhilong suddenly disappear, because he was involved in the "Zhongshan Ship Incident". There is no need to investigate how the Zhongshan ship incident was, but at that time, Li Zhilong was serving as the captain of the Zhongshan ship, and Chiang Kai-shek was already jealous, and after this incident, he was furious and directly ordered the arrest of Li Zhilong.
Chiang Kai-shek could not judge anything from Li Zhilong, and it did not take long for Li Zhilong to be released, but the death penalty could not be escaped, and Li Zhilong's political career also came to an end, and the sharp turn in political career made Li Zhilong very depressed, and the frustrated Li Zhilong ran to Japan, and as a result, when he returned to China on February 6, 1928, he was arrested by Kuomintang agents, and Li Zhilong, who was only 31 years old, was executed by shooting, and suddenly fell in a good year, which was really regrettable.