中軍小將 The Young Commander
那些人出得城來，散步東郊。不多時，有二十里向高田地，又只見中軍營裡，有小小的一個將軍：頂著盔，貫著甲，裹肚花，十八札，手執青鋒寶劍，坐下黃驃馬，腰帶滿弦弓。真個是：那些人出得城来，散步东郊。不多时，有二十里向高田地，又只见中军营里，有小小的一个将军：顶着盔，贯着甲，裹肚花，十八札，手执青锋宝剑，坐下黄骠马，腰带满弦弓。真个是：
逐句解 Line by line
Those men, once out of the city, spread out across the eastern outskirts.
散步 has 散 as sàn, to scatter or spread out — the column breaking up across the fields, not strolling.
In a little while, some twenty li on, upon the high ground, they saw within the central camp a small young commander: helmet on his head, mail upon his body, a flowered belly-guard and eighteen plates of armour, a green-edged precious sword in his hand, a yellow-dappled horse beneath him, and a full-strung bow at his waist.
Twenty lǐ out, and Wukong picks one figure out of three thousand: a very small commander at the centre of the host, in full armour. The catalogue is deliberate — helmet, mail, flowered belly-guard, eighteen plates, sword, horse, bow — the boy is dressed as a general and is plainly a child. 黃驃馬 is a yellow horse with white dapples; 中軍營 takes the locative zhōng; 將軍 is the compound, 將 read jiāng; 頂著 and 貫著 take 著 as zhe.
Truly it was thus:
真個是 — the cue that turns description into verse.
Faint and dim, the semblance of a sovereign; lofty and proud, the mien of an imperial lord.
Four five-character lines follow, and they change the subject from armour to legitimacy. 隱隱 is faint, half-glimpsed; 昂昂 is head-high, proud; 帝主容 is the face of an imperial lord. The doubled openings mirror each other exactly.
His bearing is of no common sort; his every motion shows the true dragon.
And the claim lands: 真龍, the true dragon, is the standing figure for the rightful sovereign — the emperor's own emblem, which no impostor can borrow. The verse is saying, before anyone in the story knows it, that the legitimate line is sitting on this horse and not on that throne. 規模 is bearing or scale; 行動 has 行 as xíng.
Out of a scattered hunt of three thousand, Wukong picks the one figure that matters: a small young commander at the centre of the host, armoured head to foot. The inventory of helmet, mail, sword and horse identifies him as the prince the ghost promised would ride out — and quietly registers how young he is, a boy dressed as a general.
Then four lines lift the description off the battlefield entirely. Half-seen though he is, the boy already wears "the mien of an imperial lord," and his every movement "shows the true dragon" — the emblem reserved for a rightful emperor. The verse settles the question of legitimacy well before any character in the chapter can, and it settles it against the man currently on the throne.