During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a carpenter named Qin Jiazhong outside the city of Jingxian County in the south of the Yangtze River. He was famous for his good craftsmanship in four miles and eight townships. Everyone liked to ask him to build houses and make furniture.

Qin Jiazhong has a neighbor named Lu Qiusheng, who makes a living by running a business. This year, his family built a house and specially invited Qin Jiazhong. After more than three months of work, on this day, the house was on the beam, and Qin Jiazhong carried a large iron hammer to the roof and personally fixed the long and thick beam. After correcting the position, after closing the tenon at the pillar and the beam, he lifted the large iron hammer and knocked on the tenon.

The purpose of beating the tenon is to make the tenon completely closed and fixed - after beating for a while, Qin Jiazhong raised the hammer and was about to hit the last hammer when suddenly, from the open space in front of the house, there was a loud noise. He followed the sound and saw Lu Qiusheng's son jumping and shouting at Lu Qiusheng.

It turned out that Lu Qiusheng's son was grumpy and often quarreled with Lu Qiusheng. Today, because the house in the house was on beams and there were many chores, he was annoyed and quarreled with Lu Qiusheng again. At this time, several neighbors walked by and persuaded Lu father and son... After a cup of tea, Lu Qiusheng's son stopped and went to the side. Qin Jiazhong sighed softly and went down the ladder to the roof.

It had been less than a month since that incident, and this morning a strong wind blew. The Qin family was drinking tea at home when Lu Qiusheng suddenly walked in and said to the Qin family in a panic. Just now, the newly built house of his family suddenly "squeaked" for some reason, so he quickly came to the Qin family and asked the Qin family to go and see what happened.

Qin Jiazhong was taken aback when he heard this, because he had built many houses for many people, and there had never been a "squeaking" sound. He immediately pushed the tea cup away and followed Lu Qiusheng.

As soon as he entered the Lu family's house, a "squeaking" sound reached Qin Jiazhong's ears. He looked over and couldn't help but change his face. He found a hammer in the Lu family, moved a wooden ladder, leaned against the wooden pillar, and quickly climbed the ladder.

After getting down the ladder, Qin Jiazhong told Lu Qiusheng with a red face that the "squeaking" sound was the intersection of the wooden pillars and beams of the Lu family's house. The reason was that the tenons of the wooden pillars and beams were not firmly closed. Under the strong wind, the wooden pillars rubbed against the beams, so there was a "squeaking" sound. After the hammer just now, the tenons of the wooden pillars and beams were completely fitted, so there was no more "squeaking" sound.

After listening to Qin Jiazhong's words, Lu Qiusheng said strangely, "Old Qin, you put the beams on the wooden pillars of my house with your own hands! Your craftsmanship is so good, how can the tenons not be completely closed?" Qin Jiazhong thought hard for a long time, and finally remembered: "Old Lu, that's because your son quarreled with you on the day your house was on the beams. At that time, I just sighed in my heart that your son was not filial enough to you, and forgot to hammer the joint of the tenons." This sentence made Lu Qiusheng blush.

Half a month later, Lu Qiusheng asked Qin Jiazhong to make a table for his family. Qin Jiazhong only spent two days making the table. On the day of making the table, Qin Jiazhong happened to see a relative of the Lu family come to borrow money from Lu Qiusheng. Listening to Lu Qiusheng's conversation with his relative, Qin Jiazhong suddenly sighed…

The days passed quickly for more than half a month, and on that day Lu Qiusheng was treating guests at home. As everyone was eating, they suddenly found that the table was shaking slightly. At first, Lu Qiusheng thought that the table was not flat, so he found porcelain and paper pieces to support the legs of the table. But the table was still shaking, and he realized that the reason why the table was shaking was the table itself. But he looked around, but couldn't see the reason, so he had to go to Qin Jiazhong.

Not long after, Qin Jiazhong came to Lu's house. He only turned around the Eight Immortals table in a half circle, and he saw the problem: one of the legs of the Eight Immortals table and the tenon between the table top were not strong, which caused the table to shake. Immediately, he found a hammer and hit the tenon, and the Eight Immortals table immediately stopped shaking. Lu Qiusheng asked Qin Jiazhong puzzled: "Old Qin, before, I have never heard that the table you made will shake, why did the table made for my house shake?" Qin Jiazhong recalled for a while, patted his thigh, and suddenly said: "It's like this..."

It turned out that that day, when Qin Jiazhong was putting the legs of the table on the table, the relative of the Lu family suddenly came to the Lu family to borrow money. Lu Qiusheng was afraid that the relative could not afford the money because the family was poor, so he refused to borrow it, so his relative had to leave in disappointment. This scene was seen by Qin Jiazhong, and he couldn't help but sulk: Lu Qiusheng refused to lend money to the poor relative, it was really inappropriate! Because he was only sulking, he forgot to hammer the tenon again, which caused the legs of the table to not be firmly joined to the table top, so as the days went by, there was a shaking phenomenon.

Knowing the reason for the shaking of the table, Lu Qiusheng's face couldn't help but turn red again. Because Qin Jiazhong forgot to hammer the tenon twice, the news of the "creaking" of the beams of the Lu family and the shaking of the Eight Immortals table suddenly spread, and they got the nickname "One Hammer". From then on, those who asked Qin Jiazhong to build houses and make furniture no longer dared to let Qin Jiazhong see what he could not see when Qin Jiazhong started working, for fear that he would "One Hammer" again.

These two "one hammer" were all done by Qin Jiazhong unintentionally. A few months later, he did the "one hammer" thing again, but this time he did it on purpose.

In the spring of the following year, Lin Zhi County of Jing County sent Master Lu to invite Qin Jiazhong to make furniture for his house in the county yamen. Qin Jiazhong was very happy when he saw that even the governor of the county took a fancy to his craftsmanship, so he naturally worked harder and stayed in the backyard of the county yamen all day crafting.

One evening, the Qin family was about to leave work and go home when suddenly, he saw Master Lu holding a wooden box and entering the backyard of the county yamen, while Lin Zhi County walked out of the door to greet Master Lu. Just as he approached Lin Zhi County, Master Lu accidentally dropped the wooden box to the ground and threw the lid of the wooden box off. Many silver ingots rolled out of the box and scattered on the ground. Master Lu quickly reached out to pick it up.

Ten days later, Qin Jiazhong finished his work in the county yamen and returned home with his tools. Along the way, every time he met someone he knew, he would shake his head and sigh.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten days have passed. On this day, the Qin family saw that Lu Qiusheng, who had gone home after running the business, had a rare look of joy on his face, and hurriedly asked him why he was so happy. Lu Qiusheng said happily: "Thanks to the county yamen..."

It turned out that in the spring of this year, there was a severe drought in the Jiangnan area, and Jing County was not spared. The people's lives were miserable, and Lu Qiusheng's business also plummeted. For this reason, he frowned every day. A few days ago, the county yamen suddenly distributed money and grain to the people affected by the disaster.

After listening to Lu Qiusheng's words, Qin Jiazhong stayed on the spot, unable to say a word for a while. Lu Qiusheng hurriedly asked, "Old Qin, what's wrong with you?" Qin Jiazhong woke up and went into his house, looked for a hammer, then left the house and strode down the street. Lu Qiusheng saw that he looked wrong and hurriedly stopped him: "Old Qin, what are you doing? You don't want to find someone to fight hard, do you?" Qin Jiazhong sighed and said, "Oops, I'm wrong about a good person! Unexpectedly, Lin Zhixian is actually a good official."

That evening more than 20 days ago, when Master Lu accidentally dropped the wooden box to the ground, and then a lot of silver ingots rolled out, Qin Jiazhong concluded in his heart that the silver was drawn by Master Lu for Lin Zhi County, and Lin Zhi County must be an uncompromising corrupt official. At the moment, his heart was sullen: At present, this county is in a severe drought, and people's lives are useless. As the parent and mother of a county, Lin Zhi County is not going to provide disaster relief, but you are trying to find a way to get money from your own pockets. It is really unreasonable! Well, since Lin Zhi County is an uncompromising corrupt official, then the work that my Qin Jiazhong has done for you will be discounted!

From that day on, Qin Jiazhong started to work, not only did he no longer carve, but he also deliberately hammered every tenon that should be tightly clenched. In this way, it was only a matter of time before the furniture in Lin Zhi County appeared to be "squeaking" and shaky.

Just now, after listening to Lu Qiusheng's words, Qin Jiazhong immediately realized that he had wrongly blamed Lin Zhi County, and he should not have "missed a hammer" on every piece of furniture in Lin Zhi County's house. He even thought: The money that Master Lu gave Lin Zhi County that day must have been raised by Lin Zhi County for disaster relief. So he went into the house and got a hammer and wanted to go to the county yamen to make up for every piece of furniture in Lin Zhi County's house.

Hearing this, Lu Qiusheng finally understood what had happened. He immediately urged Qin Jiazhong to hurry to the county government office.

Arriving at the county yamen, Qin Jiazhong reported the matter of "missing a hammer" to Lin Zhi County, and then made up a hammer for each piece of furniture. After Lin Zhi County stood for a long time, he didn't blame Qin Jiazhong, he just waved his hand and let Qin Jiazhong go home.

After Qin Jiazhong left, Lin Zhi County called Master Lu, handed him a box of silver, and said, "You can distribute this silver to the people… Sigh, this hand really can't be stretched out! Otherwise, even a carpenter would think of a way to deal with me… It seems that a corrupt official really can't be!"

It turned out that on that day more than 20 days ago, Qin Jiazhong's guess was not wrong. The silver that Master Lu gave Lin Zhi County was indeed fished by Lin Zhi County - the imperial court allocated the silver for disaster relief, and Lin Zhi County looked jealous, so he ordered Master Lu to make a name for himself and secretly fished a thousand taels for him.

A few days later, Qin Jiazhong learned from the mouth of Lu Qiusheng, who ran trading outside all day, that some ordinary people had received money and food for disaster relief.