肉泥爛醬 Rolled Into Mincemeat
往山南一滾，滾殺五千；山北一滾，滾殺五千；從東往西一滾，只怕四五萬砑做肉泥爛醬。」往山南一滚，滚杀五千；山北一滚，滚杀五千；从东往西一滚，只怕四五万砑做肉泥烂酱。」
逐句解 Line by line
One roll of it south along the mountain kills five thousand;
一滾 is one roll, and 滾殺 makes the rolling itself the killing — no blow is struck at all. The figure is the old man's own: five thousand on the southern ridge.
one roll north kills five thousand;
Eight characters against the previous nine, and the difference is one word. The clause has been stripped down as the boast picks up speed.
and one roll from east to west turns forty or fifty thousand of them, I should think, into mince and paste."
砑 is to crush or grind smooth with a heavy roller — a real word from papermaking and cloth-finishing, where a stone is rolled over a surface to press it flat. 肉泥爛醬 is meat-mud and rotten sauce. The vocabulary has left combat entirely and gone into food processing.
The demonstration works because it uses the old man's own numbers. Five thousand south, five thousand north, forty or fifty thousand across the middle — Pilgrim has been listening after all, and is quoting the inventory back as a schedule of work.
The verb is the horror. Nothing is fought; a roller passes over. The word for it comes from the workshop, where a heavy stone is run across paper or cloth to smooth it, and the finished product here is described as mince and paste.
Three clauses, shortening, each ending in a number. It is the most efficient piece of writing in the chapter, and it is a threat delivered entirely in the language of manufacture.