Mormon 6
Perhaps the king of the Lamanites had no respect for any other Nephite leader and would not allow them to gather, but allowed Mormon time to gather because he trusted that Mormon could and would gather all the Nephites into one place. He must have trusted Mormon to allow him four years to gather the people. I wonder how much work of translation and planning for the preservation of the plates Mormon did in that time.
The king of the Lamanites was gathering his immense forces during those four years as well to make the battle as complete as possible.
I wonder if the twenty four survivers, or those commanders of 10,000 each who were named (living and dead) – or both groups together represented the most righteous of the Nephites or if they were simply the strongest and most well-known. I have no doubt that Mormon cried his lament loudly – he did not simply write it down.