Meng Huo

Meng Huo; the Nanman king; bribed by Cao Pi to invade from the south. First appearance - the figure whom Zhuge Liang will famously capture seven times in chapters 87-90.

Meng Huo; the Nanman king; named in passing - the chapter ends pointing south to the next campaign.

Rides out in the golden inlaid headdress with lion-clasp belt and amber-chased swords, scoffing at Zhuge Liang's 'confused' banners — and is herded through ambush after ambush to the Brocade Mountains, forced off his horse in a narrowing valley, and taken by Wei Yan. Before the tent he concedes nothing: 'you happened to find me in a narrow place.' Released on his own terms — catch me again and I submit. Capture one of seven.

Lies his way home ('I slew more than ten guards'), walls the River Lu, and drinks through the hot season — until his own beaten general delivers him bound (capture two: 'the work of these minions of mine'). Released, he murders Dongtu Na and Ahui Nan with hidden assassins, throws their corpses in a gully, and stakes everything on his brother's drugged-tribute scheme — walking into the empty camp, the three-sided trap, and Ma Dai's disguised rescue boat (capture three: 'I am the victim of fate'). Runs the taunting gauntlet home and raises a hundred thousand from the Eight Nations and Ninety-three Sees.

Comes on in rhinoceros-hide mail and a red casque, riding a red ox — and swallows the abandoned-camp bait whole ('if we pursue, we cannot go wrong'), to be herded east into the pit-field before Zhuge Liang's carriage: capture four. Released, he hides in Duo Si's poison-spring ravine and toasts his safety — until the friendly King Yang Fang's cup-bearers pin him at the banquet: capture five. Still defiant ('not your ability, but the treachery of my own people'), he sets the final wager himself: take the Silver Pit Ravine, my fathers' stronghold of three rivers and two forests, and I and my heirs yield forever.

Runs through his last allies — Dai Lai's proposal buys Mu Lu's beast-magic, then the Wuguo rattan army — and shows one flash of grace: when his wife orders the captured Zhang Ni and Ma Zheng killed, he stops it, remembering the five releases. Trapped by the knife-search (capture six: 'if you take me a seventh time, then I will turn to you'), he sends thirty thousand borrowed men into the burning valley and is roped by Ma Dai fleeing the wreck — capture seven. Offered release once more, he weeps instead: 'Seven times a captive and seven times released! Does he think that I feel no shame?' — and crawls to the tent with all his people: 'O Minister, you are the majesty of Heaven.' Confirmed king of the south, every place restored.

Leads the Mang chieftains and notables out to honour the departing army, and it is Meng Huo who explains the River Lu storm — the wild spirits, the seven sevens of human heads, the black ox and white goat — the custom Zhuge Liang then refuses and replaces. Weeps with the rest at the sacrifice. Released at Yongchang with orders to govern diligently, keep control, care for his people and promote agriculture, and takes his leave with tears rolling down his cheeks.