Great General Pang Ning was a veteran courtier who had served three reigns. Gu Shenwei had heard his name since childhood. Back then, Pang Ning had not yet held power over the court, but his position was already high. Gu Lun often mentioned him, and never with particular warmth.
Gu Shenwei still remembered what Wei Song had once said. He and Gu Lun had been favored ministers of the late emperor, and had been bitterly opposed by another faction of old courtiers. After the emperor died, Gu Lun had gone far away to the Western Regions, while Wei Song had chosen to submit to his political enemies. Thinking back now, that enemy had almost certainly been Pang Ning.
The factions and political struggles at the Central Plains court were far more complicated than those in the Northern Court. Gu Shenwei knew very little about them, and Fang Wenshi hadn't been able to learn much more. He could only sketch out the simplest possible picture. "The ministers of the Central Plains are divided into two factions. One is backed by the Empress Dowager—Pang Ning, Wei Song, and the like. The other shelters beneath the wings of the young emperor. They're locked in fierce open and covert struggles, clashing over almost everything, especially their policies toward the Northern Court and the Western Regions."
Fang Wenshi's gaze shifted between the Dragon King and Dugu Xian, hoping they would quickly understand what he meant. "The Empress Dowager's faction wants to seize credit through war. The other faction of ministers is bound to oppose them, arguing that war will exhaust the people and drain the treasury. They've fought until neither side will yield. The Old Khan King's death and the Northern Court's division gave the Empress Dowager's faction the upper hand. Even the emperor thinks