Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 113.

Last time, Meng Huo had fallen for another of Zhuge Liang's tricks, and he was routed in battle.

He was fleeing into a canyon with a few dozen men when his path was blocked by a gloating Zhuge Liang.

Seeing that Zhuge Liang did not have that many guys with him either,

Meng Huo gave a braveheart-esque speech and then charged forward,

intent on taking out his frustration by leaving

a few holes in his foe. But alas, this was not going to end well for him. As he rode near Zhuge Liang,

the ground underfoot suddenly gave way, and Meng Huo and his men all fell into a deep trench. So yeah, you didn't

really think Zhuge Liang was just going to put himself in harm's way without another trick

up his sleeve, did you? From the woods behind him came the general Wei Yan, along with a few

hundred soldiers. They fished out Meng Huo and his man one by one and bound them

all.

While that mop-up operation was happening, Zhuge Liang went back to his own camp, where

he put out an offer of amnesty to the Nanman forces and tribal leaders.

Now by this point, most of them had already said the heck with this and scampered back to

their home territories. Among the rest, those who had not been killed in battle all surrendered.

Zhuge Liang once again treated them to wine, food, and kind words before letting them all go,

which once again left the nine Nanman soldiers deeply touched.

Hey, can we do this again next week? We're starting to get used to this wine and dine thing.

Momentarily, the general Zhang Yi arrived with Meng Huo's little brother Meng You in tow.

Now Meng You himself was captured and released by Zhuge Liang once before,

...