Wang Delin Wang Delin or Wang Teh - ling , ( 王德林 ) ( 1875 － 1938 ) , bandit , soldier and leader of the National Salvation Army resisting the Japanese pacification of Manchukuo . Wang Delin was born in October 1875 . He became a bandit in Manchuria after the Russia n invasion in July 1900 when Tsarist forces were sent to Northeast China , to protect the Russian - owned Chinese Eastern Railway or CER . Wang declared his opposition to both the Russians and China ' s Qing dynasty , describing himself as " forced to become an outlaw to cast out the Russians and save the nation " . His band operated attacking trains along the eastern part of the CER , in the Muleng and Suifen areas . He also attacked Russian shipping on the Songhua and Ussuri rivers and held captives for ransom . Wang was an outlaw for years , even beyond the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 . In 1917 , Wang agreed that he and his followers would become part of the Jilin provincial forces , himself as commander of the Third Battalion of the First Brigade of the Jilin Army . Wang brought with him , two companions who had been with him for many years , Wu Yicheng and Kong Xianrong , each commanding a company . Still a battalion commander at the time of the Mukden Incident in 1931 , Wang was stationed near Yanji , a small town in the east of Jilin province , where the Japanese were constructing a new , railway line . After Wang ' s troops fired on a party of Japanese surveyors , his commander attempted to persuade him to move his battalion with an offer of promotion . Wang refused to submit to the Manchukuo regime and his defiance attracted others to join him . When on February 8 , 1932 , Wang Delin proclaimed the establishment of the Chinese People ' s National Salvation Army ( NSA ) , his battalion of 200 men had swollen to a force of over 1 , 000 . By capturing the town of Dunhua on February 20 , the Wang reversed the Japanese advance which had seemed irrestistible until then . He was attracting the support of peasant brotherhoods and bandits , and a few Korean nationalists , that were already taking up arms against the recently proclaimed State of Manchukuo . By the end of the month , the NSA was 4 , 600 strong . To bring in more recruits . Wang appealed to the patriotism of Chinese soldiers in the Manchukuo forces to not fight other Chinese , shaming them into deserting and joining the volunteers . The tactic succeeded , bringing large numbers of well - armed and trained recruits . In March 1932 , a Japanese and Manchukuoan expeditionary force was defeated in a series of battles with the NSA around the shore of Lake Jingbo losing hundreds of casualties . These battles were small in scale , the volunteers using their knowledge of the local terrain to set ambushes , eventually compelling the Japanese to retreat to Harbin . By this time Wang had about 10 , 000 men and he was recognized as a general by the " Old Kirin " leader Gen . Li Du at his headquarters at Sanxing in Heilongjiang Province on the lower Sungari River . He along with Gen . Ting Chao raised a number of volunteers to supplement their regulars defeated at Harbin the previous year . These various forces constituted themselves initially as the Kirin Self - Defence Army , but by the end of April 1932 they were known as the National Salvation Army . The Japanese had concentrated northwest of Harbin against General Ma Zhanshan in spring and summer of 1932 , which allowed the increase in partisan activity in Jilin and Liaoning provinces . This activity culminated in simultaneous attacks on cities throughout the South Manchurian Railway Zone as severe August floods halted Japanese operations based on Harbin , and isolated the troops engaged on them . Japanese preparations for invading Jehol province later that year had to be halted by the need to subdue this widespread partisan activity , and with Japanese forces concentrated to the west , the forces of Wang and Feng Zhanhai managed to briefly occupy the capital of Jilin province . However things began to go wrong when the NSA became embroiled in disputes with General Li Du ' s Jilin Self - Defence Army . One of Li ' s subordinates tried to persuade one of Wang Delin ' s commanders to put his force into the Self - Defence Army . Also , NSA troops were killed by the Self - Defence Army for the confiscation of the weapons of a White Russian mine owner . Finally , Li , s subordinate was put in a sack and thrown into a river , probably at the instigation of Wang Delin ' s deputy , Kong Xianrong . This rift forced the abandonment of the city . The Japanese followed up with " Anti Bandit " Operations that fall and winter that eventually drove the Volunteer armies to break up into small bands or retreat into the Soviet Union as Wang ' s force did on January 13 , 1933 . Eventually Wang returned to China via Europe , and continued to support the anti Japanese movement . On December 20 , 1938 he died in the province of Shandong .