Which of these two interpretations of this line are correct?


I'm reading a scene here, and I find a line whose meaning is very unclear to
me.

> A: 「最後の最後で両方って可能性は……？ 敵軍で道の出口を塞いだ上で、後続に矢の雨とか」

> B: 「その可能性もあるわ。ただ、この段階でひと当てふた当てしておいた方が、こちらの消耗的には都合がいいと思うのだけれどね……」

> A: 「警戒するだけでも消耗するもんな……」

I'm having a devil of a time figuring out character B's reply. I 'm pretty
sure ひと当てふた当て likely stands for 一当て二当て; usually when I see a phrase I can't
figure out, I google it. Google finds hits where this is used, but no actual
definition in any of the usual online dictionaries.

I've been puzzling over this line for more than half an hour, and here's my
best guess:

> B: That's also a possibility. But I think we should consider these handful
> of possibilities as exhaustive.

But I'm not sure whether it means that, or (since the following line uses
'exhausted') it's some kind of pun, something like this (I'm pretty sure this
specific one is wrong, but it might be something similar):

> B: That's also a possibility. But given how exhausted our men are, we should
> focus on only one of those possibilities.




I don’t have enough context but my guess would be something like this.

> B: We cannot rule out that possibility. But I think we should "take a hit or
> two" (on our enemies) at this stage. It would be beneficial from the
> viewpoint of our men’s exhaustion (or energy consumption).

> A: Indeed. Just staying alert would exhaust them.

The quoted part above is my very literal translation of ひと当てふた当てする as 当てる
means “to hit” or “to strike”. I suppose the speaker is referring to some kind
of attack.

* * *

[EDIT]

I later found that "make a strike or two" would make much more sense in this
context and be still literal enough.




I don’t have enough context but my guess would be something like this.

> B: We cannot rule out that possibility. But I think we should "take a hit or
> two" (on our enemies) at this stage. It would be beneficial from the
> viewpoint of our men’s exhaustion (or energy consumption).

> A: Indeed. Just staying alert would exhaust them.

The quoted part above is my very literal translation of ひと当てふた当てする as 当てる
means “to hit” or “to strike”. I suppose the speaker is referring to some kind
of attack.

* * *

[EDIT]

I later found that "make a strike or two" would make much more sense in this
context and be still literal enough.

