Meng Huo captured and released seven times

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the barbarian Nanman King Meng Huo and his chieftains rebelled against the forces of Shu, following the death of founding emperor Liu Bei. Shu's Prime Minister Zhuge Liang went south to pacify the southern tribes. In the span of just one week, Meng Huo was captured and released seven times. In the process he lost many of his men. After the first six times he was captured, he argued and said he was dissatisfied and wanted to have another try. After being captured a seventh time, Meng Huo swore an allegiance to Shu.

What happened historically?

 * SGZ does indeed mention Meng Huo and him being captured seven times, however, this appears in footnotes that were added by Pei Songzhi who added these footnotes somewhere around the year 400 A.D. His comments have long come under fire for possibly being erroneous and it indeed does seem very unlikely that seven skirmishes can be fought in just one week.
 * Historically, Meng Huo was not the King of Nanman. In fact, he was of Han Chinese origin. He knew Yong Kai, who asked him to entice and incite the various barbarian tribes, such as the Nanman tribe.
 * Meng Huo's officers, or chieftains, such as Zhu Rong, King Duosi, Dong Tu Na and others, are all fictional.