After Wei's removal (along with Xue's, after the defeat against Khitan), Yao and Lu were the only remaining chancellors, and Yao bore the brunt of the responsibilities. It was said that in 715, when Yao had to take about half a month of vacation due to his son's death, the important affairs stacked up at the legislative bureau, which Lu was unable to handle, and that once Yao returned from vacation, he was able to handle the matters quickly. Lu, realizing that he was not as capable as Yao, usually yielded to Yao in important matters, and the people at the time derogatorily referred to Lu as "the chancellor who simply ate together" (伴食宰相). Also that year, when there was a major locust infestation in central China, Yao advocated capturing and killing the locusts—a strategy that initially yielded no results, and Emperor Xuanzong considered abandoning it. Yao insisted on the strategy, and eventually this led to the improvement of the situation. Lu opined that killing many locusts may lead to disharmony in the spiritual world, but Yao stated that locusts were harming farmers and that he was willing to take any supernatural punishment for killing locusts. Later that year, when Emperor Xuanzong considered eliminating the posts of circuit-reviewing officials (按察使, "Ancha Shi"), Yao advocated keeping the posts, as he believed that it would be relatively easier to find people suitable to be these officials than to make sure that the prefectural prefects were all suitable officials without "Ancha Shi" reviewing their acts.