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.
In the meantime the first regiment of the Großstadtdivision had encountered the Nordhafendivision, as it was moving towards the Stadtparlement. Soldiers belonging to the Nordhafendivision were the first to open fire, and the regiment of the Großstadtdivision returned fire. While the Großstadtdivision was outnumbered one to five, the fighting paused the advance of the Nordhafendivision and allowed guards of the Stadtparlement to evacuate the buildings and bring the members of parliament in safety. Among those present in the Stadtparlement was also the consul-general of Sanama who had been invited to discuss furthering trade between Sankt Ludwigshafen. Using his satellite phone he was able to report the situation to the Sanama Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which sent the SNS Rhodondra to Oudorp to bring the consul-general into safety.
While the Nordhafendivision and the first regiment of the Großstadtdivision were still involved in a gunfight, more and more units belonging to the loyalists showed up. The battle finally turned into the favour of the loyalists when Razzie Waldfürcht and her Angels arrived on the battle scene. The sound of a hundred galloping horses over the cobblestones frightened the putschists and many of them dropped their weapons and scattered in various directions. The soldiers of the Großstadtdivision and Sisera's Angels fought the last remnants of the Nordhafendivision until it gave up the fight and surrendered to Razzie Waldfürcht as she had started a charge.
As the SNS Rhodondra arrived in Oudorp the next day, peace had returned to the streets of Stadt Sankt Ludwigshafen. The Sanaman commanders on board of the vessels met with the consul-general to make sure that he was in safety and offered their help to Statthalterin Charlène Jolicoeur-Schafenweide. On board of the SNS Rhodondra were several helicopters that sent to scout the Lanzerwald to track the putschists that had fled the city, the Eingreifstruppe I, together with the 113th battalion of the Kalisa Lanyitali, would arrest the fugitives. After two days of searching, most of the Nordhafendivision had either been arrested or killed, and the Sanamans were thanked for their gracious assistance. Unfortunately, the leader of the coup, Heinrich Nudelfleisch, had not been found and was still on the run. However, he was not considered an immediate danger to the republic without an army under his command.
In the city, the performance of Razzie Waldfürcht was the talk of the day and the Stadtparlement passed a resolution to name her Kriegskönigin (war queen) of the Republic.
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 clear 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 instead become evident that the presumably 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. By the time that the emissary had arrived, and recovered from his debilitating condition sufficiently to be able to contemplate stepping ashore, the fighting had already concluded.
- The affair would lead to a request for the government of Sankt Ludwigshafen to consent to the installation of a telephone for the purpose of communication in emergencies. Or if not a telephone exchange then at least a telegraph office or a semaphore tower.
