Wrestling a bandit

[Lu]

I'm still translating a novel, Chinese to Dutch, and there's a sentence I don't quite understand.

 

Context: Two men are fighting with two bandits. We mainly follow one of the good guys, the young man 陈耀武. I'll just paste in most of the fight here:

羊棚里的李美莲和陈耀文冲到院子里，陈耀文手里拿着一块砖头跑到近前的哥哥那边，这时陈耀武一根手指被土匪卡断了，陈耀武仍然扭住土匪不放，他看见陈耀文拿着砖头过来，就喊叫陈耀文砸土匪的脑袋，陈耀文左瞄右瞄不敢下手，怕砸到哥哥脑袋上。(...)这时陈耀武扭住土匪一个翻身，让土匪压到自己身上，他对陈耀文喊叫：“砸呀。”
陈耀文连人带砖头一起扑了上去，砖头砸在土匪脑袋上，把土匪砸晕了过去，陈耀文也重重摔倒在地，他爬起来后看看这个一动不动的土匪，看见陈耀武扑向另一个土匪，与父亲一起把那个土匪摁在地上，这时陈耀武扭住土匪一个翻身，让土匪压到自己身上。

 

My question: what is happening where it says 这时陈耀武扭住土匪一个翻身，让土匪压到自己身上?

 

My current reading: Chen Yaowu is holding the bandit down, even when the bandit breaks his finger; then in one throw, he turns them both around so the bandit is on top. (Making the bandit a better target for his brother with the brick.) Is that correct?

[roddy]

I think so, but also that 扭住 is some kind of arm/head lock?

[cncorrect]

扭：揪住(grapple with)。大众见他二人扭在一起。——《官场现形记》

 

So the sentence '这时陈耀武扭住土匪一个翻身，让土匪压到自己身上。' can be translated as 'Then Chen Yaowu grappled the bandit and turned them both around so the bandit was on top.'

 

 

[honglam]

For translation I'd say "have the bandit's arm/head/whatever body parts locked" may be more acceptable. Since 陈耀武 must somehow have the bandit's body controlled, so that he could turn them both around and make the bandit come to the top (stably), and then could 陈耀文 hit exactly the bandit's head, not his brother's. "lock the bandit's arm/head/whatever body parts" could express the sense of "controlling" more clearly I think.

[Lu]

Thanks everyone! An arm/headlock situation makes sense, and fortunately for me I can use the word 'houdgreep', which doesn't require me to specify which body part is being held in lock.