By this time, approaches to Sasun had been blocked by a division of the 4th Corps of the Ottoman army (eight battalions, later increased to fourteen). The total force comprised as many as 10,000 soldiers and policemen, in addition to 6,000–7,000 irregular Kurdish cavalry. Armenian forces consisted of 200 guerrillas under the command of Vahan, Hrayr and Andranik, along with Kevork Chavoush, Murad of Sebastia, Keri and others. Untrained peasants in 21 villages also took up arms, swelling the insurgency to 1,000. Andranik suggested inciting a general revolt in Armenia which would disperse the Turkish forces; Hrayr objected that an Armenian revolt, unsupported by other factions of the Ottoman Empire, would be doomed and suggested concentrating on the defense of Sasun.