By year's end, Wang Yan had truly become busy—so busy that the whole family was occupied.
It was not only Princess Yu and the others who came calling. Many other powerful clans and great households sent their foremost representatives to seek out Wang Yan during the year-end grand court assembly, hoping to curry favor with him.
Some came to befriend and win him over; others came asking him to handle matters for them. Those were secondary. Quite a number of talented men from humble backgrounds did not even return home for the New Year, instead coming to recommend themselves to Wang Yan in hopes of earning his appreciation, becoming retainers of the Wang household, and working for him.
Naturally, this was due to Wang Yan's excellent reputation. Because he had trained the children of tenant farmers, he had hired many talented men of humble origins as teachers and promised them opportunities to become officials in the future.
Although Yang Jian was now promoting the imperial examination system, the great clans and wealthy households remained immensely powerful. The examinations selected only a portion of the candidates; the remaining official posts were still controlled by those great clans and households, who could still recommend and appoint people.
Wang Yan was not from a great clan, but he was already a genuinely powerful household. He was also a staunch lackey of the imperial family, the Crown Prince's top man, and the Sui Dynasty's God of War. Naturally, he was qualified to arrange jobs for people.
Those talented men of humble origins whom he had talked into teaching the tenant farmers' children had all been sent to the grasslands as officials after the Turkic Khaganate was destroyed. First, this fulfilled his promise; second, it strengthened his control over the grasslands.
Together with his influence