Now when we saw that
the Lamanites began to grow uneasy on this wise, we were desirous to bring a
stratagem into effect upon them; therefore Antipus ordered that I should march
forth with my little sons to a neighboring city, as if we were carrying provisions
to a neighboring city. And we were to march near the city of Antiparah, as if
we were going to the city beyond, in the borders by the seashore. And it came
to pass that we did march forth, as if with our provisions, to go to that city.
(Alma 56:30-32)
The feints
and ambushes employed in the Book of Mormon is reflected in the Aztecs. While
Book of Mormon times/lands do not correspond to the Aztecs, it does show that
the author(s) of the Book of Mormon could describe precisely the feints/ambush
tactics that Aztec armies later used to great effect:
AMBUSHES
Ambushes were among
the most successful and skillfully executed of the Aztec tactical maneuvers. They
included simple attacks at physical disabling times and locations, such as at
narrow mountain passages, where the advantage lay overwhelmingly with the attacker
or from seemingly deserted houses. The most spectacular ambushes, however, were
executed in battle and involved use of a feint in which the Aztec forces retreated
as if the enemy were winning the struggle. If the feint was executed
convincingly, the enemy advanced to press home its advantage. Once the enemy
forces had been drawn into a compromised position, the Aztecs turned on them
with additional troops, attacked them from behind, or used these troops to cut
off from tactical and logistical support.
One feint described many times in the
historical accounts involved the use of foxholes and cover During the war with
Tecuantepec, King Axayacatl advanced at the front of his army. When the
opponents attacked, he fell back to a place where his soldiers were hidden by
straw, whereupon they attacked and won. In the war against the Huaxtecs, King
Moteuczomah Ilhuicamina formed his units and attacked, before feigning a
retreat. This drew the Huaxtecs forward until two thousand armed cuahchicqueh
and otontin warriors, camouflaged with grass, arose and destroyed them. The
same basic tactic was used in many other wars. In the war against Tolocan (Toluca),
King Axayacatl and eight of his generals concealed themselves in straw-covered
holes in the ground. When the Aztec army retreated past their location, they
leaped out, killed the Toloca lords, and routed the army.
Although disobedient rulers were sometimes
killed, political assassination before battle was not a significant factor in
Mesoamerican warfare. But in battle the ruler was a legitimate target, since
his death could shorten the battle and the war. (Ross Hassig, Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and
Political Control [The Civilization of the American Indian Series 188; Norman,
Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988], 103)
