Pilgrim called out hurriedly, “You have taken the wrong road!”

The shout is aimed at the bolting master, not at the robbers, and it is the last thing Wukong says before he turns to business.

He picked up the bundle and made to go after him.

提著 puts 著 at zhe, action under way — bundle in hand, moving. The pursuit is a feint: it provokes the robbers into blocking him, which is exactly what he wants.

The gang of robbers barred his way: “Where are you off to? Leave the travelling money behind and spare yourself the rod.”

Two readings of the same character seven characters apart: the pointing nà of 那夥賊, that gang, and the questioning nǎ of 那裡走, where are you off to? 將 is jiāng, marking the money as the thing to be handed over, and 免得 keeps its neutral de.

Pilgrim laughed and said, “Let us be plain about it: the money must be split three ways.”

三分分之 uses 分 twice — first as the noun, a share, then as the verb, to divide — and both keep fēn. The joke is that Wukong is not refusing the demand. He is negotiating a cut of it.

The robber chief said, “This little monk is altogether too sharp. He means to hold something back behind his master’s back.”

忒 is read tè, the reading the 漢語大詞典 gives for the sense of excess as well as for the sense of error; the dialect form tuī recorded in the 現代漢語詞典 is the noted alternative. 瞞著 has 著 at zhe, action under way, and 些兒 is suffixed, so 兒 is er.

“Very well then. Bring it out and let us see. If it comes to much, we will share a little with you as well, to buy fruit with on the quiet.”

也罷 uses 罷 as the verb bà — let it be so — not the soft ba that ends a sentence. 背地裡 takes 背 as bèi, the back you have rather than the bēi of carrying something on it: behind his back. The robbers are now offering a kickback to the man who is about to kill them.

Pilgrim said, “Brother, that is not what I meant at all. Where should I have any travelling money?”

那裡 is the rhetorical nǎ again — where would I get any? — and 甚 the question word shén.

“I mean the gold and silver you two have taken off other people. You must share some of that with me.”

是必 is an emphatic: you positively must. The demand is outrageous by design. Wukong is manufacturing the provocation, and he needs them to strike first.

The robbers were furious to hear it and swore at him: “This monk does not know whether he is alive or dead. You will not give to us, and instead you ask of us. Do not run — take a beating!”

你倒不肯 has 倒 in its contrary sense, dào — on the contrary, instead. 看打 is a challenge formula: look out for the blow.

He swung up a knotted rattan staff and struck Pilgrim seven or eight times across his bald head.

扢撻藤 is the same knotted rattan staff named in the description of the two chiefs, where one of them carried it crosswise on his shoulder. 光頭 is a monk's shaven head, and the aim is deliberate.

Pilgrim behaved as though he had noticed nothing, and with a smile all over his face said, “Brother, if that is how you beat, you may go on beating till next year, till the spring ox has been whipped, and it would still not count for earnest.”

當 falls twice, both times meaning to take something as something, so both are dàng: 只當不知, as though he knew nothing, and 不當真, not to be taken for real. That second reading pushes 當 up to the fourth tone, which in turn lifts the 不 in front of it from bù to bú. As for the joke: 打春, beating the spring, is the Beginning-of-Spring rite in which a clay ox is whipped to start the farming year, and 罷 is the verb, to finish. Keep hitting me till next year's ox has been thrashed, he says, and it still would not count.

The robber was startled. “This monk has a hard head on him!”

好硬頭 is admiring in spite of itself, and it is the closest any of these men come to understanding what they are dealing with.

Pilgrim laughed. “Not at all, not at all. You do me too much honour — it will pass well enough.”

不敢，不敢 and 承過獎 are the standard formulae of modest disclaimer — you are too kind — deployed here about the hardness of his own skull. 將就 puts 將 at jiāng, to make do; 看得過 has the 得 of being able to, so de.

The robbers would allow no explaining; two or three of them set on him at once and beat him wildly.

那容分說 repeats the pairing exactly: the questioning nǎ beside the pointing nà of 那賊. The same phrase was used when they beat Tripitaka. The same two readings, the other victim.

Pilgrim said, “Gentlemen, calm your anger. Let me bring it out.”

息怒 is a formula for calming somebody down. It is the last polite thing said in the scene.