天王領旨，更求雷公 The Heavenly King Takes the Edict, and Two Thunder Lords Are Asked For
真個那天師啟奏了玉帝，玉帝即令李天王父子率領眾部天兵，與行者助力。那天王即奉旨來會行者。行者又對天師道：「蒙玉帝遣差天王，謝謝不盡。還有一事，再煩轉達：但得兩個雷公使用，等天王戰鬥之時，教雷公在雲端裡下個雷㨝，照頂門上錠死那妖魔，深為良計也。」天師笑道：「好好好。」天師又奏玉帝，傳旨教九天府下點鄧化、張蕃二雷公，與天王合力縛妖救難。遂與天王、孫大聖徑下南天門外。真个那天师启奏了玉帝，玉帝即令李天王父子率领众部天兵，与行者助力。那天王即奉旨来会行者。行者又对天师道：「蒙玉帝遣差天王，谢谢不尽。还有一事，再烦转达：但得两个雷公使用，等天王战斗之时，教雷公在云端里下个雷㨝，照顶门上锭死那妖魔，深为良计也。」天师笑道：「好好好。」天师又奏玉帝，传旨教九天府下点邓化、张蕃二雷公，与天王合力缚妖救难。遂与天王、孙大圣径下南天门外。
逐句解 Line by line
The Celestial Master did indeed lay it before the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor at once ordered Heavenly King Li and his son to lead their companies of heavenly soldiers and lend Pilgrim their strength.
那天師 takes nà and 父子 takes zǐ, the full reading a meaningful word keeps. 助力 is to lend strength. The Jade Emperor grants the request precisely as it was framed — which will matter a good deal once the request turns out to have been the wrong one.
The Heavenly King took the edict and came to meet Pilgrim.
那天王 takes nà. Ten characters move an entire heavenly army. The book spends its length elsewhere.
Pilgrim spoke to the Celestial Master again: "I am indebted to the Jade Emperor for despatching the Heavenly King, and my thanks are past exhausting.
遣差 takes chāi, to send somebody out on a commission — the reading in 欽差, an imperial envoy — not the chà of falling short. 謝謝不盡 keeps 不 as bù.
There is one thing more, and I trouble you to pass it on as well: if only I might have the use of two thunder lords, then when the Heavenly King is at grips with him, let the thunder lords send down a thunder-wedge from the edge of the clouds, straight onto the crown of his head, and strike the fiend dead. That would be a fine plan indeed."
雷㨝 reads léi xiē, a thunder-wedge. The second character is the hand-radical twin of 楔, a wedge, and the compound names the thunderbolt as a thrown object — folk belief held that a stone wedge fell out of the sky wherever lightning struck, and people dug them up and kept them. What Wukong is proposing is essentially a drone strike: pin the target in close combat, then drop something on his head from above. 還有 takes hái, 但得 takes dé, 教 takes jiào, 那妖魔 takes nà, and 深為良計 takes wéi — "would be" — as 深為不便 did two passages back. 一事 gives yí.
The Celestial Master laughed and said, "Good, good, good."
The tripled 好 answers Wukong's doubled thanks earlier on. Nobody in Heaven argues with him any more; they agree and pass it upward.
The Celestial Master memorialised the Jade Emperor once more, and an edict went out having the Ninefold Heaven Office detail two thunder lords, Deng Hua and Zhang Fan, to join their strength to the Heavenly King's in binding the fiend and delivering from calamity.
救難 takes nàn, the noun — a calamity — not the nán that means difficult. 教 takes jiào, and 鄧化 keeps huà as part of a personal name. Deng and Zhang were on the thunder roll checked three passages ago, which is how we know they are not the fiend.
So with the Heavenly King and the Great Sage Sun he went straight down and out of the Southern Gate of Heaven.
The passage began with a request travelling up through two offices and ends with the whole machine coming down in thirteen characters.
Wukong asks for the thunder lords almost as an afterthought, and the plan he sketches is the sharpest tactical thinking in the chapter: hold the fiend at close quarters with the Heavenly King, then drop a bolt on his crown from outside the fight. It fails for the reason everything here fails — not because it is unsound, but because the ring does not care whether a plan is sound.
雷㨝 brings in the first of the chapter's three unusual characters, and this is the first of its three appearances. It survives conversion to simplified script unchanged, so it needs no special handling on the page.
救難 takes nàn against the nán of 難縛 earlier in the chapter — the noun and the adjective, two passages apart.