It means that guards had no intention to resist and surrendered to fellow ROP adherents as fast as they could. You could have 10 times as many guards and it still doesn't change anything, you only get 10 times as many rifles on the floor. The reason for this surrender may be in part in overwhelming advantage of attackers, but IMO the guards and the attackers are not too far from each other, ideologically and politically and religiously.
Is this the reason they let them go?