 Zhong gathered a group of non-Han residents of the region and went up into the mountains, using the mountains as their defense, eventually with the group increasing to 10,000 people.At one point, after Wang captured but abandoned Fu Prefecture (撫州, in modern Fuzhou, Jiangxi), Zhong took over the prefecture, and then-reigning Emperor Xizong thereafter made Zhong the prefect of Fu.In 882, after Wang's erstwhile ally Huang Chao captured the imperial capital Chang'an and forced Emperor Xizong to flee to Chengdu, Zhong attacked Jiangxi's capital Hong Prefecture () and expelled the imperially-commissioned governor (觀察使, "Guanchashi") Gao Maoqing ().