He was active in the formation of the district and the Ottoman Serb civil army from 1793-1794 to 1796, and took part in the operations against Janissary leader Osman Pazvantoğlu. At the end of November 1797 obor-knezes Aleksa Nenadović, Ilija Birčanin and Nikola Grbović from Valjevo brought their forces to Belgrade and forced the besieging janissary forces to retreat to Smederevo. He was a rebel delegate in the talks with Bekir Pasha in 1804.
He participated in the liberation of Valjevo and in the first fights around Belgrade.