As they spoke, they walked slowly down the stone steps.

The dark passage is connected by stone steps, the stone path is through, the stone steps are about 5000 steps, the maximum slope is 45 degrees, the stone path is one meter wide, and the stone steps are excavated according to the stone wall.

In order to avoid the disaster of hail, fire, and beasts, the gods and the curse of heaven, the ancestors deliberately left a secret passage in the mansion so that they could quickly escape in case of accidents. In the Song Dynasty, the tea bricks produced in Longshan County were exchanged for 1 first-class horse in Inner Mongolia in the form of commodities. Later dynasties stipulated that Longshan County had a tribute task for tea, and by the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the tea trade had occupied an important position. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the Yuan family was wealthy, monopolizing the tea, tea bricks, cotton and linen, tung oil and other industries. The family industry is a family economic community linked by blood relations in an agrarian society, where everyone contributes to make money and shares the benefits of the family, such as children in the family private school for free, leaving home to go to school when they are young, the family contracts the tuition fee, and those with excellent grades can be guaranteed to go to university for further study, or even go abroad to study abroad, and those who are not good at learning will become an apprentice in the family shop or work as a worker in a handicraft workshop. Because of the wealth, education, and education, the children of the family have a good way out, either to learn and excel in the career or to enter the academic world, or to be good in business and wealthy, good at maneuvering and squire, even if stupid and dull, to arrange a job to ensure that the family is supported. For the widows, the elderly, the young, the sick and the disabled, the family has special funds to give special care to ensure that the sick are cured, the old are supported, the land is cultivated, and the house is righteous.

The overall order of the family, the norms of behavior, the operation of the economy, each performing its own duties, is like an independent small kingdom under a large society. The representative figure who formulated the family rules and implemented these benefits was Yuan Xue'an. At that time, Yuan Xue'an was the head of the entire patriarchal family, the one in control, known as the "second master", no matter what decision was made, the effect eventually affected hundreds of thousands, or even tens of thousands of people. Under the patriarch, above the crowd, in fact, he is the de facto "boss", the real operator, in charge of the common economy, master the steering wheel, open a shop and a factory, open a factory to expand the land, steady and steady step by step, form a county-level joint chamber of commerce, prepare to build a provincial joint venture company, the business from the Fushui River to the provincial capital, make friends with the high-level, communicate with the powerful, become the master of Zhang Zhidong, play a special wharf on Wusheng Road, build a "rich fang" street in Yaojialing, build a Longshan specialty factory area in Qintai, build a mansion in Hubu Lane, and build a fellow townsman hall. As a "general leader", every time you do a big thing, not only to do a good job, but also to do it beautifully, because you need to coordinate various resources in different departments and different regions, you need to understand the humanistic customs, current affairs, and government and opposition forces in various places, so you must understand the sophistication of people, know how to go step by step, learn to be harmonious and smooth, take into account all aspects, and maintain a harmonious atmosphere under the premise that everyone has money to make, and try to make the local and top feel at ease, shareholders and executives are satisfied, and managers and workers are happy. It is the ability to mediate, the level of negotiation, and the ability to manipulate large amounts of resources in the face of complex situations.

Most of the workers and apprentices, fellow villagers and clansmen who followed Yuan Xue'an to the county seat and provincial capital also settled down, and after having experience and funds, they became merchants and sits in the city, which indirectly changed the fate of countless people. Anyone with a little common sense knows that the ranking between clans is not age, not seniority, not seniority, but ability, ability to do big things and ruthlessness, and these are all public pushes, everyone recognizes and reassures, Yuan Xue'an is ranked so high, it can be seen that his skill and courage to rely on shrewdness to collect money are indeed powerful, which makes people have to be convinced.

This kind of "ranking" continues to this day, Yuan Huanxuan returned to Yaoshan, and the clansmen all respectfully called "Second Young Master", or Second Son, even Yuan Qiuhua and the clansmen met each other, whether in the county seat or in the provincial capital, they were also called "Second Miss", or "Second Girl". This "two" does not refer to the second head of the second room in the family, there are many descendants of the second room, but only the descendants of Yuan Xue'an can inherit his honorific title of "second master", family gatherings, dinners, if the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren appear hand in hand, the old man is called the second master, the middle-aged is called the second master, the young man is called the second young master, the title of his family and relatives, and so on, such as the second grandmother, the second aunt, the second aunt, the second girl. This "two" , It does not refer to the order in which brothers and sisters are born in their family, like the eldest child, the second child, the third child, servants and outsiders can call them the eldest young master, the second miss, the third young master, but the clan is only divided into men and women, not according to the order of birth, they are uniformly called the second young master, the second miss, if the brothers and sisters appear at the same time, it is the second young master, the second young master, the second young master, the second miss, if there are more than three, choose the name to call, in 1998, at the genealogy revision celebration party, Yuan Shijie's four sons, Yuan Hongbi, Yuan Huanxuan, Yuan Hongyuan, Yuan Hongyi delivered speeches side by side, respectively, they were called the second young master of Bi, the second young master Xuan, the second young master of Yuan, and the second young master Yi。

From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the social situation was unstable, warlords and bandits were rampant, and the clan in addition to raising a group of martial artists in the ancestral house, as the family of the house, also strengthened and expanded the secret passage, leaving an entrance and exit every 100 steps. Outside the mouth is along the cliff to cut out of the two-foot wide stone path, according to legend, the trail through the clouds and fog, sometimes hidden and sometimes appearing, the pedestrian stone path, like in the sky to drive the clouds and mist, the river waves, galloping and undulating at the foot, the clouds are lost in the mountains, the wind blows the mountains like flying, the clouds move like dancing, people are frightened. Because the trail is too narrow, so the path is attached to the wooden stake to tie the rope for the purpose of pulling the hand, in case of fright, the footsteps are inaccurate, the body is shaking, you can reach out and pull the rope to save yourself, even if you stumble, it is also close to the cliff wall hanging, to avoid the risk of death. There is a wide path in the road, for the old and weak women and children to walk, there is a narrow path outside the mouth, which is covered by the young and middle-aged people, the two paths are connected and parallel, and they are interconnected, and they come and go freely. The zigzag shape of the two paths winds down, seven bends and eight turns, directly to the river, and the boat can be quickly escaped.

Later, some members of the clan joined the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the national army searched the mountains, the Japanese invaders swept the mountains, or air raids and bombings, but the clansmen still hid in secret passages to avoid casualties.