Red Sister had truly been mistaken. The prefect did not intend to borrow cultivators for construction; he had not been hit with some intelligence-reducing halo.
The prefect's biggest problem now was that he wanted to buy trains and railways, but... he did not have enough money!
He could rent the locomotives and carriages from Feng Jun, which was surely negotiable. It was only one train, after all; extending the route a little would do. It was similar to long-distance carriages and passenger ships.
The crucial issue was that laying railway tracks cost far too much. Qingning Prefecture's finances could not possibly provide that much money.
The prefect did not dare come to Pacify Arms Mountain to beg for donations—after all, Duke Changsheng's head was still hanging at the ruins of Dong Family Stockade. What he had in mind was whether he could acquire rails and other supplies through barter.
Red Sister refused outright. "We have no trouble selling these things. Besides, a railway isn't something a little prefectural city like yours can build on its own. If you have no money, buy something else. Why insist on biting off more than you can chew?"
Before she had met Feng Jun, she had lived in the Grain Department compound and was no stranger to government procurement—an incoming official might not acknowledge the debts left by their predecessor.
Red Sister was not afraid that the other party would dare default on Pacify Arms Mountain's debts—if they had the nerve, they could try. But when they could clearly pay cash and receive the goods immediately, why should she get tangled up in that sort of trouble?
However, the prefect said that after their railway opened, quite a few people had become envious—not the kind of envy that led to crooked schemes, but the