It was Zenith's intention to stir up the Nephites by reviewing the history of the Lamanites and then urging them to engage the Lamanites face to face. This means hand-to-hand combat -- stabbing, cutting, slicing off sword arms, disemboweling, and running swords through the body. It is bad enough to fire a gun at an enemy 100 yards away, but hand-to-hand combat allows for all kinds of atrocities. And the record says that before the Lamanites were driven from the land, there were so many slain that they did not even count them.