 The town was completely surrounded on October 25, and might have fallen, had the locals left the city.However they resisted heroically and Vrioni resorted to negotiations in order to save his men, against the opinion of Mehmed Reshid and Yussuf Pasha.The besieged Greeks destroyed the morale of the Ottoman army and when they were reinforced by sea the novice Turkish captains and the two pashas scheduled their main assault for Christmas night, December 24, calculating that the Greeks would be caught by surprise.