今年又要 This Year They Are Wanted Again
兩個來弄殺了，四個來也弄殺了。前年要了，去年又要，今年又要，如今還要。卻撞個對頭來了，那個要宮女的先鋒被個甚麼孫行者打敗了，不發宮女。我大王因此發怒，要與他國爭持，教我去下甚麼戰書。两个来弄杀了，四个来也弄杀了。前年要了，去年又要，今年又要，如今还要。却撞个对头来了，那个要宫女的先锋被个甚么孙行者打败了，不发宫女。我大王因此发怒，要与他国争持，教我去下甚么战书。
逐句解 Line by line
"Two were brought and were done to death; four were brought and they were done to death as well."
The arithmetic is the whole sentence. Two, then four, and the second clause runs one character longer than the first — the extra character being 也, as well. The number has doubled and nothing else has moved, and nobody remarks on the doubling, which is what makes it land.
"The year before last they were demanded, last year demanded again, this year again, and now he wants more."
Four time-words and four occurrences of 要, wanted, in sixteen characters: the year before last, last year, this year, and now. The last of the four gives up on the calendar altogether, so the series runs out of years and arrives in the present tense, where the demand is still standing.
"But now a match for him has turned up. That vanguard who went for the palace women was beaten by some Sun Pilgrim or other, and the women were not handed over."
甚麼 here is dismissive rather than questioning — some Sun Pilgrim or other. The courier has the name and no idea what it is worth, which places him exactly: close enough to the centre to carry the despatch, far enough from it to have missed the reputation.
"So our Great King has flown into a rage and means to have it out with their kingdom, and has sent me off with some declaration of war or other."
教 is jiào, to make somebody do something, and it is the verb of his entire position in life. 甚麼 arrives a second time within ten characters and is dismissive again — the war he is carrying interests him as little as the enemy who caused it.
Six women in one sentence, and he counts them the way a clerk counts stock. Two, then four, then a demand every year with no number attached at all, because by then the number has stopped being the point. Nobody in the kingdom knows any of this. The king has been sending women into a mountain for three years and has never learned what becomes of them.
The escalation is in the grammar rather than the figures. The first sentence gives quantities, the second gives only dates, and the last date is not a date but now.
Twice he reaches for 甚麼, some-such, and both times it is attached to something that has just changed his life. Some Sun Pilgrim or other beat the vanguard; some declaration of war or other is strapped to his back. He is carrying the consequences of both and has taken the measure of neither.