Alma — Chapter 52
1 On the morning of the first day of the first month of the twenty-sixth year of the Nephite judges, the Lamanites woke up and found Amalickiah dead in his own tent. They also saw that Teancum was ready to fight them.
2 When they saw this, they were afraid, so they gave up their plan to march into the north lands, and instead went with all their army back to the city of Mulek, where its forts would protect them.
3 Amalickiah’s brother Ammoron was chosen to be the Lamanites’ new king.
4 He commanded his people to keep the cities they had killed to get. (They had not taken over any cities without lots of killing.)
5 When Teancum saw that the Lamanites were going to keep the cities and lands they had taken over, he thought it would not be a good idea to fight them in their forts, because there were so many of them.
6 But he kept his men there as though they were getting ready to fight. Yes, and he really was getting ready to protect himself against them by building up walls and small forts all around.
7 He kept getting ready for war until Moroni sent him a large number of men to make his army stronger.
8 Moroni also sent him an order to keep all Lamanite prisoners, just as the Lamanites had kept all the many Nephite prisoners they had taken. Moroni wanted to trade Lamanites for Nephite prisoners.
9 Moroni told Teancum to make Bountiful stronger and make the narrow pass to the north lands safe from the Lamanites, because if the Lamanites took over that pass, they would have power over the Nephite armies.
10 Moroni also told him to keep that part of the land, and to give the Lamanites trouble every time he could, and to try to get back some of the cities from the Lamanites in any way he could think of, and to make the cities the Lamanites had not taken over even stronger.
11 Moroni told him: “I would come to you, but the Lamanites have come into the borders of the land by the west sea, so I have to go fight them there.”
12 The Lamanite king, Ammoron, had left the land of Zarahemla and told the queen about his brother’s death. Then he gathered a big army and went against the Nephites on the borders by the west sea.
13 He was giving the Nephites trouble, trying to get them to send some of their armies to that part of the land. He had commanded his armies in the cities they had taken over by the east sea to fight against the Nephites and take over as much land as they could.
14 So the Nephites were in great danger at the end of the twenty-sixth year of the judges.
15 But during the twenty-seventh year of the judges, Moroni took his armies to Bountiful to help Teancum get back their lost cities, after setting up armies to protect the south and west borders of the land.
16 Teancum had orders to fight against the city of Mulek and take it back if he could.
17 So Teancum got ready to fight against the city of Mulek, and went with his army against the Lamanites. But he saw that he could not beat them while they were in their forts, so he went back to the city of Bountiful to wait until Moroni came and made his army stronger.
18 Moroni got to the land of Bountiful with his army at the end of the twenty-seventh year of the judges.
19 At the beginning of the twenty-eighth year, Moroni and Teancum and many of the other chief captains met together to plan what they could do to make the Lamanites leave the fort and city and fight against them, or how they could trick them into leaving their forts, so they could defeat them and take back the city of Mulek.
20 They sent people to the leader of the Lamanite armies in the city of Mulek, called Jacob, asking him to bring his armies out and fight them in the fields between the two cities. But Jacob, a Zoramite, would not bring his armies out to fight in the fields.
21 So Moroni, seeing that they could not fight fairly, planned to trick the Lamanites into coming out of their forts.
22 He had Teancum take a small army of men down by the seashore. Then Moroni went with his army at night into the wilderness west of the city of Mulek. The next day, when the guards saw Teancum and his small army, they ran and told their leader Jacob about it.
23 Then the Lamanite armies came out to fight against Teancum. They thought they could defeat him because he had such a small army. When Teancum saw the Lamanite armies coming against him, he went further away to the north, down by the sea.
24 When the Lamanites saw them run away, they got braver and chased them faster. While Teancum was leading the Lamanites away, Moroni commanded part of his army to take over the city.
25 They did, killing all who had been left to protect the city who would not give up their weapons.
26 So Moroni got back the city of Mulek with part of his army. Then he went with the rest of his army to fight the Lamanites when they were done chasing Teancum.
27 The Lamanites chased Teancum until they got near the city of Bountiful, where they met Lehi and his small army, who were there to protect the city of Bountiful.
28 When the Lamanites’ chief captains saw Lehi and his armies coming against them, they ran away in confusion. They were afraid they would not be able to get back to the city of Mulek before Lehi caught up to them, since they were so tired from the long chase, and Lehi’s men were not.
29 The Lamanites did not know that Moroni was behind their army. All they were afraid of was Lehi and his men.
30 Lehi did not want to catch up to them until they ran into Moroni and his army.
31 So before the Lamanites had gone back very far, they were surrounded by Nephites — by Moroni and his men on one side, and Lehi and his men on the other. All the Nephites were strong and not tired, but the Lamanites were tired from their long chase.
32 Moroni commanded his men to fight the Lamanites until they gave up their weapons.
33 Their Zoramite leader, Jacob, was very stubborn, and he led the Lamanites to fight against Moroni with great anger.
34 Moroni’s army was in their way, so Jacob was going to kill them and cut right through them to get back to the city of Mulek. But Moroni and his men were stronger, so the Lamanites could not get through.
35 Both sides fought hard, and many were killed on both sides. Moroni was hurt, and Jacob was killed.
36 Lehi and his men fought so hard on the other side of the Lamanite army that that side gave up their weapons. The rest of the Lamanites did not know if they should keep fighting or run away.
37 When Moroni saw that they did not know what to do, he said to them: “If you bring your weapons to us, we won’t kill any more of you.”
38 When the Lamanites heard this, all their chief captains who had not been killed brought their weapons and threw them down at Moroni’s feet and commanded all their men to do the same thing.
39 But many Lamanites would not do this. Those who would not give up their weapons had them taken from them and were made to go with their brothers to the land of Bountiful.
40 There were more prisoners taken than there were people killed on both sides.
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