the future there would not be any treason accusations at all. Pleased with Yao's comment, she awarded him money. In 698, Wu Zetian gave Yao the designation Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor de facto, probably at the recommendation of the senior chancellor Di Renjie. In 702, Wu Zetian considered launching a campaign against Eastern Tujue, and she put her son Li Dan the Prince of Xiang in command of the army, assisted by her family members Wu Sansi the Prince of Liang, Wu Youning the Prince of Jianchang, and the chancellor Wei Yuanzhong. Yao Yuanchong was to serve as secretary general for Li Dan on this campaign, but eventually the campaign was not launched. Around this time, there was an ethnic Tujue chieftain named Zhali Yuanchong (吒利元崇) who rebelled against Zhou. Wu Zetian did not want Yao to share a name with Zhali, and therefore had him use his courtesy name of Yuanzhi. In 704, Yao, who was by that point Fengge Shilang (鳳閣侍郎), the deputy head of the legislative bureau of government (鳳閣, Fengge), citing the fact that his mother was old, requested to be relieved of his office so that he could attend to his mother. In summer 704, Wu Zetian made him Li Dan's secretary general, but allowed him to have the salary and prestige as officials of the third rank (i.e., chancellors—while the secretary general for an imperial prince was only ordinarily fourth rank, second division, first class). Less than a month later, she made him also the minister of defense (夏官尚書, Xiaguan Shangshu) and chancellor de facto again, with the greater designation of Tong Fengge Luantai Sanpin (同鳳閣鸞臺三品). However, he declined the post of minister of defense, explaining that while he was serving Li Dan, for him to be in command of the army would hurt Li Dan (i.e., possibly bring suspicions on Li Dan). Therefore, Wu Zetian instead made him the minister of rites (春官尚書, Chunguan Shangshu). Around this time, Wu Zetian's lover Zhang Yizhi wanted to move 10 senior Buddhist monks from the capital Luoyang to a temple that he had built in Ding Prefecture (定州, roughly modern Baoding, Hebei). These monks did not wish to go and petitioned Yao, who ruled that the monks did not have to go, despite repeated requests by Zhang. Zhang therefore spoke to Wu Zetian against Yao, and Yao was demoted to be