Chapter 149: Disguised

When Prime Minister Ma Deli learned that the so-called treasure was located in the Indian colony under British control, his first reaction was a bit surprised, but then he felt it was very reasonable.

The reason Britain was so powerful was inseparable from its vast colonies. And among all the British colonies, the most brilliant one was India, the fertile land known as the jewel of the British Empire, which provided the British government with a large amount of capital income and mineral resources.

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

The British could obtain a large amount of income and mineral resources from India, so what about the original masters of this land? Could their income be small?

Even if the income obtained by these states of different sizes each year was not as much as imagined, the accumulation of decades or even a hundred years was also very exaggerated.

Moreover, the history of the country of India was definitely not just decades or a hundred years. Even if it was just a hundred years of wealth accumulation, it was definitely a huge figure that made people's hearts beat faster.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Ma Deli could no longer sit still and was full of curiosity about the legendary Indian temple treasures.

Since they were going to dig for treasure in the Indian colony under British control, the most important thing was to choose the personnel responsible for digging and transporting the treasure to India.

The number of people participating in the action was not large; after all, hiding it from the Indian colonial government and the British government was not an easy thing to do.

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 Indian indigenous cities, it would easily attract the attention of those Indians and the colonial government.

The personnel selected to go to India had to be elite soldiers, and there had to be a reliable person to lead the team. Besides this, when going to India, they had to go separately; only by doing this could they avoid being discovered by the Indian colonial government and the British government to a greater extent.

The personnel selected by the government would serve as the main force, while the intelligence personnel of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency would serve as helpers, jointly completing this journey of finding treasure across ten thousand miles.

Gao Da was quite trusting of the people from the Royal Security Intelligence Agency. Facts had proven that letting Kadier become 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 personnel was carefully selected by him.

Especially for those elite intelligence personnel, besides being proficient in combat capabilities and knowledge of infiltration, they also needed to have a full understanding of the customs and common sense of various countries around the world.

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

In order not to expose the specific reality of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency to Prime Minister Ma Deli's eyes, these intelligence personnel who performed auxiliary work would participate in the name of Royal Palace guards.

As for whether Prime Minister Ma Deli and others would be suspicious, that was not something Gao Da needed to consider.

February 1873, southern India.

Although February was still in winter for most parts 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 after February, the average temperature had even reached 28 degrees Celsius.

The target of Spain's action this time was the Kerala state in southern India, separated from Sri Lanka by the sea, and it was the southernmost region of the Indian continent.

This was one of the most densely populated regions in India, and naturally, it also possessed a few colonial cities of scale. Over a hundred people participated in this action, forming groups of two, arriving in India in various ways, and finally meeting in Kerala state.

Because the number of personnel participating in the action combined was only over 100, and they all acted separately, it was fundamentally impossible for the Indian colonial government and the British government to react.

Although India was a British colony, it was ultimately open to the outside world. 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 4, the weather was cloudy, with 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 not many pedestrians walking on the muddy dirt road; two intelligence personnel disguised as foreign tourists walked on such a dirt road, which did not seem strange.

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

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

This was mainly because the region of India had too many people; 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. Millions, if not tens of millions, of Indians had died at the hands of British colonialists, and tens of millions more had died indirectly.

In Indian colonial cities, if Indians dared to look at the British a few more times, what awaited them might be a beating, or they might even be beaten to death directly.

The British did not need to accept any punishment for beating Indians to death, but if Indians dared to fight back, perhaps even their families could not escape the British retaliation.

Under such circumstances, unless it was the kind of person 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 these personnel sent by the Spanish government. Relying on white skin and European faces, no matter how doubtful these Indians were, they dared not have the slightest dissatisfaction.

Of course, it was also possible that the weapons in the hands of these action personnel 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 the Indians, sending a few bullets to the Indians would be nowhere to reason.

So, seeing that these foreigners were all European-faced and carried firearms, no Indian dared to stand there foolishly.

"Scotty, is there really any temple treasure here?" One of the two foreign-faced people was slightly doubtful, looking at this muddy road and those skinny Indians, really unable to believe that amazing wealth would be buried here.

"Who knows? Val." The action personnel named Scotty shook his head helplessly and reminded: "But this is an order; even if there isn't, we have to turn this place over.

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

Rewarding these people participating in the action was a unified opinion that Gao Da and Prime Minister Ma Deli had reached without much thought.

Going to India under British control to dig for temple treasures ultimately required secrecy; after all, this offended the British.

If it were known by the British, even if it wouldn't lead to war, it would cause not-so-small trouble.

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

Moreover, the people participating in the action were all carefully selected; those big-mouthed people who loved to brag had long been weeded out in the first round of screening.

These people participating in the action were either soldiers very loyal to Spain selected by Prime Minister Ma Deli, or intelligence personnel strictly trained by the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

The possibility of these people leaking intelligence was minimal; even if a few people ultimately leaked the secret, Spain could deny it to the end, as long as not many people leaked the secret, it would not cause too much impact.

Although these people participating in the action were very doubtful about coming to India from ten thousand miles away to find the so-called temple treasure, they did not have much dissatisfaction.

After all, these people were either soldiers or intelligence personnel, 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 person named Val continued: "

Is the intelligence given by these Indians reliable? What we are looking for is a temple, not a dilapidated temple that is about to collapse."

"Let's wait until we finish searching the last few." Scotty 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 had obtained a map from the local Indian villagers. As for how they obtained it, it was naturally by purchasing it.

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

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

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

1 pound was not a particularly large fund in Europe, but it was relatively large in India. These Indian indigenous people worked hard for a year and might not necessarily earn 1 pound; facing such huge wealth, they were naturally diligent in telling everything about all the temples nearby, big or small, regardless of when they were from.

There were many action teams like Scotty and Val, but they were all disguised as different identities.

There were immigrants newly arrived in India, mineral prospecting personnel from European mineral companies, employees of trading companies, tourists from far away in Europe, and European nobles out hunting, etc.

No matter what the identity was, those Indians dared not 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 strange the caste system here was, it facilitated Spain's actions. As white people from Europe, no one dared to provoke them in the Indian indigenous state regions.

After days of investigation, the teams of two or three finally set their sights on a relatively large 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." Scotty said to Val.

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

This was not the small temples investigated before, which only had scattered believers from nearby villages. If the treasure was really in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, wanting to steal this treasure without anyone knowing, the difficulty was higher than expected.

"Let's meet up with the main force first; we must formulate an extremely detailed action plan to ensure that it will not be known by the British." Val pondered for a long time and finally decided to meet up with the main force before discussing the method of action.

As early as before departure, Gao Da and Prime Minister Ma Deli had repeatedly emphasized the importance of secrecy.

Being discovered by the British was no big deal, at most it meant giving the British a share. But this was precisely what Spain could not bear, because according to the strength comparison between Spain and the British, the lion's share would definitely be taken by the British.

Moreover, this temple treasure was originally in the Indian colony under British control; if it were discovered by the British before it could be transported back to Spain, perhaps the British would swallow this treasure alone.

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

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

If there was treasure, it was absolutely 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 defensive power, which was unprecedented.

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

The person in charge of leading the team this time was a lieutenant colonel in the military, and also one of Prime Minister Ma Deli's confidants. The Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Kadier, was disguised as one of Gao Da's guard officers, serving as the deputy commander of this action.

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

Since the action had to be secret, it was naturally to be done once and for all. If the burial place of the treasure could be determined, then the next action would be simple.

But if the burial place of the treasure could not be determined, the next action would be relatively 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 action time would not be long, and all the treasure had to be transported out before the local colonial government reacted.

(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 150 =====