Chapter 149: Disguise and Dress-up

When Prime Minister Primo learned that the so-called treasure was located in the Indian colony controlled by the British, his first reaction was one of slight surprise, but he subsequently felt it was quite reasonable.

The reason Britain was so powerful was inseparable from its vast colonies. Among all the British colonies, the most brilliant was the one known as the jewel of the British Empire—India, a fertile land that provided the British government with massive financial revenue and mineral resources.

But the British had not always ruled this land. Before the British, this land had states of all sizes, and they were the true masters of this land.

If the British could obtain massive revenue and mineral resources from India, then what about the original masters of these lands? Could their income have been any less?

Even if the annual income obtained by these states of varying sizes was not as much as imagined, the accumulation over dozens or hundreds of years would still be staggering.

Furthermore, the history of India as a country was definitely more than just a few hundred years. Even if it were only a hundred years of wealth accumulation, it would still be a massive figure that would make anyone's heart race.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Primo could no longer sit still; he was filled with curiosity about the legendary Indian temple treasure.

Since they were going to dig for treasure in an Indian colony under British control, the most important thing was to select the personnel responsible for traveling to India to dig and transport it.

The number of people participating in the operation was not large; after all, deceiving the Indian colonial government and the British government was not something easily done.

There were not many foreigners in India, and they were generally gathered in a few relatively large colonial cities. If groups of foreigners suddenly appeared in indigenous Indian cities, it would easily attract the attention of those Indians and the colonial government.

The personnel for the team heading to India had to be elite soldiers, and there had to be a reliable person to lead the team. In addition, they had to travel to India separately; only by doing this could they better avoid being discovered by the Indian colonial government and the British government.

The personnel selected by the government would serve as the main force, while intelligence officers from the Royal Security Intelligence Agency would serve as assistants, working together to complete this journey of searching for treasure across ten thousand miles.

As for the people from the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Carlo still trusted them quite a bit. Facts proved that making Kadier the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency was a very wise choice; he attached great importance to building the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, and every intelligence officer was handpicked by him.

Especially for those elite intelligence officers, in addition to mastering combat skills and knowledge of infiltration, they also needed to have a full understanding of the customs and common knowledge of countries around the world.

Besides that, they also needed to be proficient in using weapons from various countries, including pistols, rifles, cannons, carriages, and some small warships that could be operated by a few people, among others.

In order not to expose the specific strength of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency to Prime Minister Primo, these intelligence officers performing auxiliary work would participate under the name of Royal Palace guards.

As for whether Prime Minister Primo and others would be suspicious, that was not something Carlo needed to consider.

February 1873, southern India.

Although February was still winter for most of the Northern Hemisphere, in this region of southern India, the climate was like midsummer.

The average temperature in January was already above 24 degrees Celsius, and by February, the average temperature had even reached 28 degrees Celsius.

The target of Spain's operation this time was Kerala in southern India, which faced Sri Lanka across the sea and was the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent.

This was one of the most densely populated regions in India, and naturally, it possessed several colonial cities of significant scale. Over a hundred people participated in this operation, forming pairs, arriving in India through various methods, and finally meeting in Kerala.

Because the total number of personnel participating in the operation was only a little over 100, and they were all operating separately, it was impossible for the Indian colonial government and the British government to react in time.

Although India was a British colony, it was ultimately open to foreigners. Thousands of tourists came from Europe every year, and the Indian colonial government naturally could not distinguish one by one whether they were foreign spies.

February 4th, overcast, no sun.

Precisely because there was no sun, today's weather was quite cool, with an average temperature of only about 26 degrees.

Perhaps because it had just rained yesterday, there were few pedestrians on the muddy dirt road, and two intelligence officers disguised as foreign tourists walking on such a dirt road did not seem strange.

Although the actions of these two people did not look like those of foreign tourists, their white skin and European appearance made the Indians afraid to pay too much attention.

Do not think that the British colonial policy was very good; their colonial policy in India remained cruel, simply put, they did not treat Indians as human beings at all.

This was mainly because the region of India had too large a population; even if millions of people were lost, it would not have much impact on the region of India.

The history of the British colonizing India was actually a history of blood and tears for the Indians. The number of Indians who died at the hands of British colonists was at least several million, and those who died indirectly reached tens of millions.

In Indian colonial cities, if an Indian dared to look at a British person a few too many times, what awaited them might be a beating, and it was even possible they would be beaten to death directly.

The British did not need to receive any punishment for beating an Indian to death, but if an Indian dared to fight back, perhaps even their family would not escape the British retaliation.

Under such circumstances, unless it was someone who dared to stand up and resist British colonial rule, no one would pay attention to the actions of these foreigners, and they would rather stay as far away as possible.

Such a situation instead facilitated the actions of the personnel sent by the Spanish government. Relying on their white skin and European faces, no matter how suspicious these Indians were, they did not dare to have the slightest dissatisfaction.

Of course, it was also possible that the weapons in the hands of these operatives intimidated the Indians.

It was legal for foreigners to carry guns in India, but it was illegal for Indians to carry guns. If these Europeans were dissatisfied with an Indian, there was nowhere to seek justice if they gave the Indian a few bullets.

So, upon seeing that these foreigners were European-faced and carried firearms, not a single Indian dared to foolishly step forward.

"Scottie, is there really some temple treasure here?" One of the two foreign-faced men was slightly confused, looking at the muddy road and those emaciated Indians, and really could not believe that astonishing wealth would be buried here.

"Who knows? Val." The operative named Scottie shook his head helplessly and reminded: "But this is an order; even if there isn't any, we have to turn this place upside down."

"I hope we can find it. His Majesty the King has personally promised that if the temple treasure is found, everyone participating in the operation will receive a generous reward."

Regarding rewarding those participating in the operation, this was a consensus reached by Carlo and Prime Minister Primo without much thought.

Going to dig for temple treasure in an Indian colony under British control ultimately required secrecy; after all, this was offending the British.

If the British found out, even if they would not face war, there would be no small amount of trouble.

The best way to keep it secret was to let everyone participating in the operation benefit, which was to bribe them. Although it could not be guaranteed that everyone would keep it strictly confidential, as long as the vast majority of them kept their mouths shut, there would be no need to worry about the secret being exposed.

Furthermore, those participating in the operation were carefully selected, and those big-mouthed people who loved to brag had long been eliminated in the first round of screening.

Those participating in the operation were either soldiers chosen by Prime Minister Primo who were very loyal to Spain, or intelligence officers strictly trained by the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

The possibility of these people leaking information was minimal, and even if a few individuals eventually leaked the secret, Spain could flatly deny it, as long as not many people leaked the secret, it would not cause too much impact.

Although these participants were very confused about coming all the way to India to search for the so-called temple treasure, they did not have much dissatisfaction.

After all, these people were either soldiers or intelligence officers, and they naturally understood the necessity of obeying orders.

"How can there be so many so-called temples in this damn place? We have already searched more than ten temples in the past few days, and none of them are large enough to hide treasure." The man named Val continued: "

Is the information given by this group of Indians reliable at all? What we are looking for is a temple, not a dilapidated temple that is about to collapse."

"Let's talk after we finish searching these last few." Scottie shook his head and said indifferently: "I hope these Indians are telling the truth; otherwise, I don't mind killing a few to vent my anger."

A few days ago, the two obtained a map from local Indian villagers. As for how they obtained it, it was, of course, by purchasing it.

After all, the entire operation needed to be completely secret; if they killed people indiscriminately, it might attract the attention of local indigenous people and thus be learned by the Indian colonial government.

There were still many tourists coming to India every year, and among them, many were interested in these places with local cultural colors in India.

The two's request did not arouse the suspicion of that Indian, especially since the two took out 1 pound as a purchase fee.

1 pound was not a particularly large amount of money in Europe, but it was quite a lot locally in India. These Indian indigenous people could not necessarily earn 1 pound even after working hard for a year. Faced with such a huge amount of wealth, they were, of course, diligent in telling everything about all the temples nearby, regardless of size or age.

There were many such operation teams like Scottie and Val, but they were all disguised as different identities.

There were new immigrants to India, mining exploration personnel from European mining companies, employees of trading companies, tourists from far away in Europe, and European nobles out hunting, etc.

No matter what their identity was, those Indians did not dare to be suspicious, and they were not qualified to be suspicious.

After all, there was an extremely strict caste system on this land, and the British who ruled India, as white people, were even above the four major castes.

No matter how bizarre the caste system here was, it ultimately facilitated Spain's operation. As white people from Europe, no one dared to provoke them in the Indian princely states.

After several days of investigation, the teams, in twos and threes, finally focused their target on a larger local temple, the Padmanabhaswamy Temple.

"If there really is a so-called temple treasure, I think this temple treasure is very likely hidden in this so-called Padmanabhaswamy Temple." Scottie said to Val.

"Damn, this is not good news." Val had a headache because the Padmanabhaswamy Temple was located between several indigenous Indian cities, and many believers would go to worship there every day.

This was not like the small temples investigated before, which only had scattered believers from nearby villages. If the treasure was really in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, the difficulty of stealing these treasures without anyone knowing would be higher than expected.

"Let's meet up with the main force first; we must formulate an extremely detailed operation plan to ensure that the British will not find out." Val pondered for a long time and finally decided to discuss the method of operation after meeting with the main force.

Long before setting off, Carlo and Prime Minister Primo had repeatedly emphasized the importance of secrecy.

It was no big deal to be discovered by the British; it would just mean having to share a portion with the British. But this was precisely what Spain could not afford, because according to the strength comparison between Spain and the British, the British would definitely take the lion's share.

Furthermore, this temple treasure was originally in an Indian colony under British control; if the British found out before it could be transported back to Spain, the British might swallow the treasure alone.

Regarding major wealth, the British government would not be polite to Spain. Unless it could be safely transported back to the country and the aftermath handled well, as long as the British did not have too much evidence, there would be no need to worry about British retaliation.

After the main force arrived at the so-called Padmanabhaswamy Temple, everyone realized that the investigations of the past few days had been in vain.

If there was treasure, it was definitely in this so-called Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The scale of this temple was larger than all the temples investigated before, and it also had its own guard force, which was unprecedented.

It would be strange if there was nothing odd inside this temple; the biggest problem at present had also changed from investigating where the temple was to how to steal the treasure from this temple.

The person in charge of leading this operation was a lieutenant colonel from the military, and also one of Prime Minister Primo's confidants. The director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Kadier, disguised as one of Carlo's guards, served as the deputy commander of this operation.

After the two met and discussed briefly, they decided to first send a few agile people to sneak into the temple under the cover of night to investigate the internal structure of the temple and the buildings where treasure might be buried.

Since the operation had to be secret, it was naturally necessary to do it once and for all. If the burial site of the treasure could be determined, then the subsequent operation would be simple.

But if it could not be determined where the treasure was buried, the subsequent operation would be more difficult. Digging for treasure would definitely require killing the guards of these temples, and even killing everyone inside the temple.

This also meant that the operation time would not be long, and all the treasures had to be transported out before the local colonial government reacted.

(End of chapter)