Alma 52

New Year’s Day: the Lamanites woke up and found Amalickiah in a pool of blood, eyes wide open, shining like coins. When word got out, they dropped their plan to march north and retreated to Mulek.

Amalickiah’s brother Ammoron succeeded him as king and commander-in-chief. His first order was to hold all the cities they’d paid for with their blood.

Teancum got wind of this and resolved not to attack. The enemy was too dug in, often literally. Still, he continued troop training to keep the tension high and the Lamanites afraid. He also had his men dig in for a long stay.

Moroni sent backups and ordered Teancum to hold all his prisoners as a ransom for those the Lamanites held. He also ordered Teancum to secure the narrow pass that led to the north to keep Lamanites from taking it and potentially surrounding the Nephite armies. “If you see any of them, punish them,” he told Teancum through his courier. Strategize, concoct ways to retake lost cities. Defend the unlost. “I’d come too but I’ve got other problems on the western sea.”

Ammoron, you see, was marching on the Nephites in that coastal region. Payback for his brother. Vengeance, sweet or not, is eternal. (It’s in the brass plates.)

End of the twenty-sixth year. Headline: Nephites in two-fisted peril.

Early in the new year Moroni had landed defensive troops in the west and south and headed east to help Teancum retake those cities.

Mulek was first. Teancum planned an attack, but, daunted by how dug in the Lamanites were, headed back to Bountiful till Moroni arrived with his backups. This waiting it out took almost all year.

It wasn’t till early in the twenty-eighth year that Teancum and Moroni held a war council with their captains and colonels. The topic? How to draw Lamanites out of their defensive posts in Mulek.

They first chose the simple tactic of an invitation: come out and meet us on the plains. Fair fight. Men to men. The Lamanite general, Jacob (a Zoramite) declined the invitation.

Moroni next came up with a decoy plan: send a platoon of Teancum’s troops to march near the beach while Moroni and his army headed in the wilderness at night. When the Lamanite guards alerted their generals about the small beachside march, the generals sent troops to squash Teancum’s easily defeatable platoon. The Lamanite army headed out and Teancum’s platoon retreated toward the north. The Lamanites pursued, hotly. Meanwhile Moroni’s undiscovered men invaded the city, killing everyone who’d been left to defend it and wouldn’t surrender.

Meanwhile, a reserve of Moroni’s troops—led by Moroni himself—marched in the direction of the Lamanites pursuing Teancum’s army. The latter had made it to Bountiful, where Lehi and his army were waiting to engage. Seeing that Lehi’s army was fresh and ready to fight, the Lamanites retreated, heading back for Mulek. They didn’t know, of course, about Moroni’s troops behind them. Lehi’s troops pursued them. They were surrounded. Moroni ordered his men to kill everyone till the survivors surrendered—now his standing order for every situation, as we’ve seen.

General Jacob, though,

was oath-bound to kill Moroni. So the battle instantly got ferocious. Men plopping over like stuck pigs, blood mudding the ground till soldiers were slipping from it when they tried to swing their swords. Moroni was wounded and Jacob was killed; the details are unknown. Lehi pressed for surrender from the rear, which he got. “Drop your weapons at my feet and we won’t kill you,” Moroni said. Most complied, though a few had to be forced.

The tally showed that there were more prisoners than casualties. So that was some sort of good news.