Zhao Hong () became the new rebel leader in Wancheng. During or after October 184, Qin Jie and Zhu Jun combined forces with Xu Qiu (), the Inspector of Jing Province, to attack Wancheng with an army of about 18,000. They defeated and killed Zhao Hong. Following Zhao Hong's death, Han Zhong () and the remaining rebels seized control of Wancheng, continuing to resist imperial forces. Zhu Jun ordered his troops to pretend to attack from the southwest, while he secretly led 5,000 elite soldiers to infiltrate Wancheng from the northeast. Han Zhong retreated into the citadel and requested to surrender. Qin Jie, Xu Qiu and Zhang Chao (), a Major under Zhu Jun, all urged Zhu Jun to accept Han Zhong's surrender, but he refused. Zhu Jun instead pretended to lift the siege to lure Han Zhong to come out and attack. Han Zhong fell for the ruse, lost the battle, and tried to flee north while some 10,000 of his men were slaughtered by imperial forces. In desperation, Han Zhong surrendered to Zhu Jun, but Qin Jie had him executed. On 11 January 185, Zhu Jun defeated another rebel force led by Sun Xia (), who then fled towards Xi'e County (; north of present-day Nanyang, Henan). Zhu Jun pursued him there, defeated him and caused the remaining rebels to disperse. Xu and Yang provinces In Xu Province, the provincial Inspector Tao Qian, with the aid of Zang Ba, managed to defeat the rebels to restore regional peace. Sun Jian, then a minor official serving in Xiapi County (; south of present-day Pizhou, Jiangsu) in Xu Province, came to join Zhu Jun's army as a Major. He brought along several young men from Xiapi County and other soldiers recruited from the Huai River region. In Yang Province, the rebels attacked Shu County (; in present-day central Anhui), a county in Lujiang Commandery (; around present-day Lu'an, Anhui), and set fire to buildings. Yang Xu (), the Administrator of Lujiang Commandery, successfully rallied thousands of able-bodied men aged 19 and above for countering the attack and firefighting. End of the rebellion By the beginning of 185, the rebellion had mostly been suppressed following Zhu Jun's recapture of Wancheng in Nanyang Commandery and Huangfu Song's victories over the Zhang brothers in Ji Province. The remaining, scattered rebels were pursued by government forces in smaller military campaigns, and by mid-February 185,