枉死城 The City of the Wrongfully Dead
正說間，那幾個橋梁使者早已回去了。太宗心又驚惶，點頭暗嘆，默默悲傷。相隨著判官、太尉，早過了奈河惡水，血盆苦界。前又到枉死城，只聽哄哄人嚷，分明說：「李世民來了，李世民來了。」太宗聽叫，心驚膽戰。見一夥拖腰折臂、有足無頭的鬼魅，上前攔住；都叫道：「還我命來！還我命來！」正说间，那几个桥梁使者早已回去了。太宗心又惊惶，点头暗叹，默默悲伤。相随着判官、太尉，早过了奈河恶水，血盆苦界。前又到枉死城，只听哄哄人嚷，分明说：「李世民来了，李世民来了。」太宗听叫，心惊胆战。见一伙拖腰折臂、有足无头的鬼魅，上前拦住；都叫道：「还我命来！还我命来！」
逐句解 Line by line
Even as they spoke, the several Bridge-Wardens had already gone back.
The Bridge-Wardens have gone; their shift is over. The escort is thinning again, which in this chapter is never a good sign.
Taizong's heart was seized once more with dread; he nodded, sighed inwardly, and grieved in silence.
Three verbs of dread in a row, and no dialogue. The emperor's mounting terror is the through-line of the entire tour.
Following close upon the magistrate and the marshal, he soon passed the evil waters of the Nai and the bitter realm of the blood-basin.
相隨著 uses zhe: keeping close behind them. 血盆苦界, "the bitter realm of the blood-basin," is another district of the underworld, and the pair pass it at speed.
Ahead they came to the City of the Wrongfully Dead, where a clamorous uproar of voices cried out clearly, 'Li Shimin has come! Li Shimin has come!'
The 枉死城, wǎng sǐ chéng, is the City of Those Who Died Wrongly — the unjustly and the untimely killed, who cannot proceed to rebirth because their accounts do not balance. And the voices calling his personal name know exactly who is arriving.
Hearing the shout, Taizong quaked in heart and gall.
心驚膽戰, "heart startled, gall trembling," is still the ordinary way to say scared out of your wits — Chinese physiology puts courage in the gallbladder, so a shaking gall is a failure of nerve.
He saw a throng of specters — dragging their loins, arms broken, some with feet but no heads — press forward to bar his way, all crying, 'Give me back my life! Give me back my life!'
拖腰折臂 and 有足無頭 — dragging their waists, arms broken, feet but no heads — are battlefield injuries, not tortures. These are the men killed in the wars that put Taizong on the throne. 「還我命來」, huán wǒ mìng lái, "give me back my life," is the ghost's formulaic demand; 還 is huán, to give back.
The City of the Wrongfully Dead brings the emperor face to face with the price of his throne — and it is not the palace coup this time but the massed war-dead of his campaigns, mutilated and shouting for the lives he took.
Their cry, 「還我命來！」, is the same demand for repayment that governs everything in this chapter's underworld, and it sets up the transaction to come: Taizong is about to pay off his dead, quite literally, in cash.