1721 Ludwiggian coup d'état attempt
| 1721 Ludwiggian coup d'état attempt | |||||
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| Belligerents | |||||
 Reactionary elements in the armed forces of the Republic of Sankt Ludwigshafen
| Government of the Republic of Sankt Ludwigshafen
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Heinrich Nudelfleisch
| Stadtholder Charlène Jolicoeur-Schafenweide
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| Units involved | |||||
| Nordhafendivision
| Großstadtdivision
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On 6.VII.1721, troops formerly belonging to the Nordhafendivision of the Ludwiggian armed forces attempted a coup d'état against the Stadtparlement and the Stadtholder of the Republic of Sankt Ludwigshafen. The coup leaders were related to the Tekeel Party of 1697 and the Ludwiggian Reformed Church and opposed the ceding of Nordhafen to the Imperial Federation, the decline of influence of the Nazarene faith, and the election of a woman,Charlène Jolicoeur-Schafenweide, the year before as stadtholder.
Plans for the coupe were made in secret while the conspiring troops were still stationed in Nordhafen, pending the transfer of the territory to the military of the Imperial Federation. On 6.VII.1721, the troops disembarked at the container port from a civilian cruise ship, chartered by the Kriegsflotte Ludwigshafen and escorted by the RSLS Claudia Weißdeich. They had instructions to take a day of leisure, before the operational unit would be formally be disbanded by Stadtholder Charlène Jolicoeur-Schafenweide the next day. Instead the division marched towards Sankt Ludwigshafen. The city guard had no previous warning that the Nordhafendivision was staging a coup d'état attempt and did not assume defensive positions until fire was opened on them. After intense gunfights, the Nordhafendivision defeated the heavily outnumbered guards and the city lay open to them. Alerted by the noise of gunfire, Divisionskommandeur Ernst Mariacottage of the Großstadtdivision sent the regiment that was on active patrol towards the Stadtparlement, to assume defensive positions there, and had the rest of the division report immediately at the barracks to join the fight. Scouts on horseback were sent out of the city to the barracks of the Eingreiftruppe I, so that it could help defeat the Nordhafendivision as well. On their way towards the barracks of the Eingreiftruppe I, the scouts encountered Razzie Waldfürcht and her group of circa one hundred female riders, called Sisera's Angels, that were returning towards Stadt Sankt Ludwigshafen after a successful raid on a Monovian village that practised cannibalism. When the scouts had informed them of the attack on the city by the Nordhafendivision, the Angels sped towards the city to help in its defence.
International reactions
Raspur Pact: The Raspur Pact first became aware of the coup attempt when a Natopian resident in the city, who had informally assumed the role of honorary consul, at some risk to his life, chartered a fishing boat to take him out into international waters whereafter he could activate his contraband satellite telephone and relay an urgent message to his government in Lindstrom. After the matter was referred to the Joint Military Council of the Pact the decision was made to establish contact with the government and to assess its requirements. This task fell to the Cibolan Continental Theatre Command in view of the extreme technological isolation that the government of Sankt Ludwigshafen had imposed upon itself. In the first instance the sole gravimetric gun-cutter in the service of the Whales Auxiliary Force was directed to conduct a reconnaissance overflight of the city, but to avoid aggravating local sentiment. Accordingly the overflight was conducted at the upper altitude of the craft, an approximate height of 2 km, and its results were inevitably inconclusive, save that whatever fighting was occurring below had not yet reached the point of occasioning visible destruction within the city. It was next decided that a Swift-class off-shore patrol vessel from the Western Natopian Demesnial Forces would be dispatched to Stadt Sankt Ludwigshafen to conduct an assurance check on the government. This vessel would deliver an emissary of Cibola Command to Charlène Jolicoeur-Schafenweide, the last reported Statthalterin of Sankt Ludwigshafen, who would ascertain her position. The emissary was further directed to offer logistical and security assistance if it was apparent that the Statthalterin remained wholly in charge of the situation, but to offer her the choice of evacuation or an armed intervention if it had become apparent that the unknown but presumed mutinous soldiery had taken possession of the stadt. If the Statthalterin had perished, the emissary was instructed to depart without making any commitments to her successors and to advise the Joint Military Council and the Permanent Commission of the Pact at the earliest moment. The problems began for the mission almost immediately. Jonathan Zanhuesa, a former Secretary of Defense for Western Natopia, had been chosen for the position of emissary on account of being readily available in Geneva at the moment when the crisis arose. Whilst the specified vessel was visibly at anchor, along with several others of its class, it became apparent that the what ought to have been the admiralty of the WNDF under the Territorial Command for Cibola had not been organised. The vessels assigned to the WNDF for operations on Cibola were accordingly a mothball fleet. Jonathan Zanhuesa was accordingly forced to appeal to Frederik Anders the Younger, the man who had beaten him to the appointment as Secretary of Defense for a reunited Natopian Empire for assistance in fulfilling the mission he had been assigned. The Cibolan Fleet of the Natopian Defense Force was duly notified to provide the emissary with a suitable vessel - and at the elapse of two days, a Minute-class gunboat and ramship, known as the Nandi, appeared, seemingly grudgingly, at anchor on the quayside. Unfortunately for Jonathan, the vessel, with its prow disfigured by a sizeable protrusion shaped like an ominous drill, did not demonstrate the best handling whilst at sea in the midst of the southern hemipshere's winter. As such, the emissary arrived at his destination bedridden and nauseous on account of acute sea-sickness.
