Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 148 Disguise
When Prime Minister Primo learned that the so-called treasure was located in the British-controlled Indian colonies, his first reaction was some surprise, but then he felt it made sense.

The reason why Britain is so powerful is inseparable from its vast colonies. Among all the British colonies, the most dazzling one is India, which is known as the pearl of the British Empire and provides the British government with a large amount of financial income and fertile land of mineral resources.

But the British did not always rule this land. Before the British, this land had states of all sizes, and they were the real masters of this land.

The British were able to obtain a large amount of income and mineral resources from India, but what about the original owners of these lands? Would their income be less?

Even if the annual income of these states of varying sizes is not as much as imagined, the accumulation over dozens or hundreds of years is still very exaggerated.

What's more, the history of India is definitely more than a few dozen or a hundred years. Even if it is only a hundred years of wealth accumulation, it is definitely a huge figure that makes people excited.

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

Since we are going to the Indian colonies controlled by the British to dig for treasure, the most important thing is to choose the people who will be responsible for digging and transporting the treasure to India.

The number of people involved in the operation was not large. After all, it was not easy to hide it from the Indian colonial government and the British government.

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

The team going to India must be composed of elite soldiers and led by a reliable person. In addition, they must also go to India in a dispersed manner to avoid being discovered by the Indian colonial government and the British government to a greater extent.

People selected by the government will serve as the main force, and intelligence personnel from the Royal Security Intelligence Agency will serve as helpers to jointly complete this treasure hunt journey across thousands of miles.

Carlo still has great trust in the people of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau. It turns out that making Kadir the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau is a very wise choice. He attaches great importance to the establishment of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, and every intelligence officer is carefully selected by him.

Especially for those elite intelligence personnel, in addition to mastering combat capabilities and lurking knowledge, they also need to have a full understanding of the customs and common sense of countries around the world.

In addition, they also need to be proficient in using weapons from various countries, including pistols, rifles, cannons, horse-drawn carriages, and some small warships that can be driven by just a few people.

In order to prevent the specific examples of the Royal Security Intelligence Service from being exposed to Prime Minister Primo, these auxiliary intelligence personnel will participate in the name of palace guards.

As for whether Prime Minister Primo and others would have doubts, that was not something Carlo had to consider.

Southern India, February 1873.

Although February is still winter in most of the Northern Hemisphere, in this part of southern India, the climate is like midsummer.

The average temperature in January is above 1 degrees Celsius, and after February, the average temperature has even reached 24 degrees Celsius.

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

This is one of the most densely populated areas in India, and naturally has several large colonial cities. There are hundreds of people participating in this operation, forming a group of two, coming to India in various ways, and finally meeting in Kerala.

Because the total number of people involved in the operation was only more than 100, and they were all acting separately, it was impossible for the Indian colonial government and the British government to react.

Although India was a British colony, it was open to foreign countries after all. Every year, thousands of tourists came from Europe, and it was impossible for the Indian colonial government to identify whether they were foreign spies one by one.

On February 2th, the weather was cloudy and there was no sun.

Precisely because there is no sun, the weather today is very cool, with an average temperature of only around 26 degrees.

Perhaps because it had rained yesterday, there were few pedestrians walking on the muddy dirt road. It was not strange to see two intelligence officers disguised as foreign tourists walking on such a dirt road.

Although the two men's actions did not make them look like foreign tourists, their white skin and European looks made the Indians dare not pay too much attention to them.

Don’t think that the British colonial policy was so good. Their colonial policy in India was still cruel. Simply put, they did not treat Indians as human beings at all.

This is mainly because there are too many people in this region of India. Even if there is a loss of several million people, it will not have much impact on this region of India.

The history of British colonization of India is actually a history of blood and tears for the Indians. Millions of Indians died at the hands of British colonists, and tens of millions died indirectly.

In India's colonial cities, if Indians dared to look at the British for a few more seconds, they might be beaten or even killed.

The British did not need to be punished for killing Indians, but if the Indians dared to fight back, perhaps even their families would not be able to escape the British revenge.

Under such circumstances, unless someone dared to stand up against British colonial rule, no one would pay attention to the actions of these foreigners and would rather stay as far away from them as possible.

This situation actually facilitated the actions of the people sent by the Spanish government. With their white skin and European faces, these Indians did not dare to express any dissatisfaction no matter how suspicious they were.

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

It is legal for foreigners to carry guns in India, but it is illegal for Indians to carry guns. If these Europeans are dissatisfied with Indians, they can give them a few bullets and there is no way to complain.

So after seeing that these foreigners all had European faces and were carrying guns, no Indian dared to step forward stupidly.

"Scotty, is there really any temple treasure here?" One of the two foreign faces was a little confused. Looking at the muddy road and those skinny Indians, he really couldn't believe that there was such amazing wealth buried here.

"Who knows, Val?" The operative named Scotty shook his head helplessly and reminded, "But this is an order. Even if there is nothing, we have to search this place again.

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

Carlo and Prime Minister Primo reached a consensus without much thought to reward those who participated in the operation. Digging for temple treasures in India under British control must be kept secret after all, because it would offend the British.

If the British find out, we will not face war, but we will be in big trouble.

The best way to keep secrets is to give benefits to all those involved in the action, that is, to bribe them. Although it is impossible to ensure that everyone will keep it strictly confidential, as long as the vast majority of them keep their mouths shut, there is no need to worry about the secret being exposed.

What's more, the people who participated in the action were carefully selected, and those big-mouthed and boastful people had already been eliminated in the first round of screening.

Those involved in the operation were either soldiers selected by Prime Minister Primo who were extremely loyal to Spain, or rigorously trained intelligence officers from the Royal Security Intelligence Service.

The possibility of these people leaking information is very small. Even if some individuals eventually leak the secret, Spain can deny it. As long as not many people leak the secret, it will not cause much impact.

Although those involved in the action were very confused about coming thousands of miles to India to look for the so-called temple treasure, they did not have too much dissatisfaction.

After all, these people are either soldiers or intelligence personnel, and they naturally understand the necessity of obeying orders.

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

Is the information provided 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 find the last few." Scotty shook his head and said nonchalantly, "I hope these Indians are telling the truth. If not, I don't mind killing a few of them to vent my anger."

A few days ago, the two got a map from a local Indian villager. As for how they got it, of course they bought it.

After all, the entire operation needs to be kept completely secret. If people are killed indiscriminately, it may attract the attention of local indigenous people and be known to the Indian colonial government.

There are still many tourists visiting India every year, and many of them are interested in these places in India that are rich in local culture.

The two men's request did not arouse the Indian man's suspicion, especially since they paid 1 pound for the purchase.

One pound is not a particularly large sum of money in Europe, but it is still a lot in India. These Indian natives may not be able to earn one pound even if they work hard for a year. Faced with such a huge amount of wealth, they are of course diligent in describing all the temples nearby, no matter how big or small, and no matter when.

There are many other action teams like Scotty and Val, but they all disguise themselves as different identities.

There were new immigrants to India, mining explorers from European mining companies, employees of trading companies, tourists from afar in Europe, and European nobles out hunting, etc.

No matter what his identity was, those Indians dared not doubt it, and they were not qualified to doubt it.

After all, this land has an extremely strict caste system, and the British who rule India, as white people, are above the four major castes.

Regardless of whether the caste system here is weird or not, it facilitated Spain's actions. As white people from Europe, no one dared to mess with them in the Indian princely states.

After several days of investigation, the teams of two or three finally set their sights on one of the larger temples in the area, the Padmanabhaswamy Temple.

"If there really is such a so-called temple treasure, I think it 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 indigenous Indian cities, where many believers went to worship every day.

This is not the small temples that we investigated before, which only have scattered believers in nearby villages. If the treasure is really in the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, it will be more difficult than expected to steal the treasure without anyone noticing.

"Let's reunite with the main force first. We must formulate an extremely detailed action plan to ensure that the British will not know about it." Val pondered for a long time and finally decided to discuss the method of action after reunite with the main force.

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

Being discovered by the British was no big deal, it would just give the British a share. But this was exactly what Spain could not afford, because according to the power comparison between Spain and the British, the lion's share would definitely go to the British.

What's more, the temple treasure was originally in the Indian colony under British control. If it was discovered by the British before it could be transported back to Spain, the British might have taken the treasure for themselves.

The British government would not be polite to Spain when it came to such a huge amount of wealth. Unless the goods could be safely transported back to the country and the aftermath was properly dealt with, there would be no need to worry about British retaliation as long as the British did not have too much evidence.

When the large group arrived at the so-called Padwanabhaswamy Temple, everyone realized that all the investigations in recent days had been in vain.

If there is a treasure, it must be in this so-called Padwanabhaswamy Temple. This temple is larger than all the temples investigated before, and it also has its own guard force for the first time.

It would be strange if there was nothing strange in this temple. The biggest problem now has changed from investigating where the temple is to how to steal the treasure from this temple.

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

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

Since the operation had to be kept secret, it naturally had to be done once and for all. If the location of the treasure could be determined, then the next step would be simple.

But if you can't be sure where the treasure is buried, the next action will be difficult. To dig up the treasure, you must kill the guards of the temple, or even everyone in the temple.

This also means that the operation will not take too long, and all the treasures must be transported out before the local colonial government reacts.

(End of this chapter)