This oil painting was created by Chinese artists Hu Tilin and Jia Difei to memorialize General Yang Jingyu, a Chinese national hero during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

It depicts Japanese soldiers transporting Yang’s body out of a snowy forest after killing him.

The Manchurian Incident in 1931 marked the beginning of the Japanese invasion of northeastern China.

To fight against Japanese troops, General Yang Jingyu was deployed by the CPC Central Committee to northeast China to organize local anti-Japanese forces.

Yang’s forces had to bear extreme elements including bitter cold to travel some 50 kilometers a day through forestland.

Using guerrilla tactics, Yang led his forces to repeatedly defeat the enemy, even when outnumbered.

In 1936, Yang helped consolidate anti-Japanese forces in northeast China and established the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

The troops led by Yang threatened the stability of Manchukuo, the puppet state of the Empire of Japan in northeast China.

The Japanese army called Yang "the most mortal malady" of Manchukuo.

To hunt down Yang’s troops of 300, the Japanese army dispatched a large force of 75,000.

They cut off supply lines to Yang’s forces and killed him in battle in 1940.

Japanese soldiers dissected his body and found only undigested grass roots, cotton batting and tree bark left in his stomach.

As an anti-Japanese fighter, Yang’s persistence and iron will even won tribute from his enemies.

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