Deputy Speaker Confirmed!

As for which Shelter's upper ranks he should establish connections with?

Qiu Tu had long since made up his mind—Old Wang.

Over the past few days, he had also learned about the factional landscape of the Eighth Shelter from Tang Feifei.

According to Tang Feifei, the Eighth Shelter had only been established for a little over a decade. It was precisely at the height of factional integration and fragmentation.

There were more than a dozen factions, large and small, within the three major institutions.

The six largest were the Iron-Blood Faction, the Fengtian Faction, the Liberal Democratic Faction, the Local Armed Forces Alliance, the Academic Faction, and the Reformist Faction.

Of them, the Iron-Blood Faction was the largest faction in the Eighth Shelter. Its leader was Rao Shou, Speaker of the Highest Council, and its main sphere of influence lay within the Military Department.

Most of the Iron-Blood Faction's middle and upper ranks came from the Military Department. They were either Rao Shou's former subordinates or military bosses and warlords close to him.

As such, they controlled the Eighth Shelter's most powerful armed forces and military.

Ranked second was the Fengtian Faction. Its name originated from Fengtian City, the former site of the Eighth Shelter.

It was a faction defined by regional ties. Its core consisted of the three major political families around Fengtian City: the Tang Family, the Zhou Family, and the Song Family.

Before the Calamity, these three political families had already been century-old houses with formidable strength. Though the Great Calamity had cost them much of their power, their families still produced talents in abundance, and their trusted followers were highly capable as well.

Back then, the Eighth Shelter had been established with Rao Shou as its skeleton and them as its flesh and blood.

Thus, their