Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 149: Gold Mountain

At night, outside the majestic-looking Padmanabhaswamy Temple, several people dressed in dark clothes carried various kinds of equipment and slowly approached the surroundings of the temple.

To avoid attracting attention, they first wandered casually around the temple, confirming that no believers came at late night, before gathering outside the temple again.

This ancient temple named Padmanabhaswamy Temple surprisingly had its own defense force. This also increased the difficulty of exploring the internal structure of the ancient temple. These operatives not only had to try to figure out the structure and construction layout inside the temple and find the most likely places where treasure was buried, but also pay attention to the patrols of the defense force inside the temple.

Once discovered, there would only be one last method left, which was to assault the ancient temple and loot it clean before the British Colonial Government could react.

But if they did that, regardless of whether there was treasure inside the temple, the treasure excavation mission would end anyway.

If it was confirmed that there was treasure inside this temple, then the subsequent treasure hunting plan would have to be extremely cautious. Because vast India had more than just this one ancient temple; there were many ancient temples scattered in various places.

Even if not all temples had rich treasures inside, there were always some temples that buried treasures from hundreds or even thousands of years ago.

If they could excavate a few more, perhaps the debts owed by the Spanish Government could almost be paid off.

Although the temple had its own defense force inside, these were obviously formed by the temple itself, and were completely negligible compared to the elite soldiers carefully selected by the Spanish Government.

After simply calculating the time these patrolling monks took for each patrol, taking advantage of the gap in their patrol time, several agile operatives quickly sneaked into the temple in the dark. This temple had a very long history and covered a very large area. Though called a temple, it was not just a simple temple building, but a massive building complex connected by multiple buildings.

Precisely because the temple’s area was relatively large, it also facilitated the hiding of the operatives. However, after searching most of the temple, the operatives still had not found any place that might bury treasure.

The vast majority of the temple’s buildings were open to the public, and were places where external believers often came to worship and visit. These places were basically impossible to bury treasure; if there was, it would have long been known by these Indian commoners and passed to the ears of the British.

The British had not discovered the treasure inside the temple until now, which also proved that if there was treasure, it must be hidden in places rarely visited by people, that is, the deepest part of the temple.

Sure enough, after a careful search, several operatives finally discovered a very dilapidated building in the deepest part of the temple.

Compared to the outer buildings, this even more dilapidated building obviously had a much longer history. The outer buildings more or less had traces of renovation, but this dilapidated building not only had no traces of renovation, but clearly few people came.

Weeds had grown in front of the building, and if placed in the wild, it would look like an abandoned house.

But placed inside the massive temple, it instead looked somewhat strange. The entire temple not only had a large area, but the buildings were also quite magnificent and splendid.

This also showed the influence of religion in India. While most Indian commoners could barely make ends meet, these temples were built magnificently one by one, the contrast inevitably making people ponder.

“Damn it, this must be it.” Scottie and Val, due to their agility, successfully joined the action team exploring the temple.

Seeing this dilapidated building in front of them, which stood out prominently in the magnificent temple, Scottie immediately stopped and turned his gaze to Val beside him.

“We might really be about to discover the temple treasure.” Val nodded as well, clearly suspicious of this building: “Let’s go, check inside first.”

Because it was in the deepest part of the temple building complex, and few people came, it instead facilitated the action team’s investigation of this dilapidated building.

After going around to the front of the building, everyone immediately discovered something even more off.

Although the entire temple building complex had its own defense force, the overall defense force was not large. The patrolling teams added up to only more than 20 people, and they only patrolled the periphery of the temple, with little patrol force inside the building complex.

But inside this obviously dilapidated building, there were actually several monks on guard at the door. If this was really just an ordinary dilapidated building, why would there be people on guard here?

These few people on guard already proved the specialness of this building, and immediately made everyone in the action team firm in their original idea, that the temple treasure was very likely inside this building.

To avoid alerting the enemy, after exploring almost the entire temple building complex and confirming the location where the treasure was buried, the few people exploring the temple exchanged glances with each other, then tacitly chose to retreat.

The treasure was not something they could carry alone; the treasure excavation plan required all operatives to act together.

In addition, the monks and defense force inside the temple needed to be dealt with, so that they could excavate the treasure without restraint.

Also, some force needed to be left to deal with the believers coming to worship; if it attracted a large crowd of Indians to spectate, even if the treasure was excavated, it would be impossible to take it out of India under everyone’s gaze.

It might be cruel to the Indians, but there was no way around it; after all, this temple actually had legendary treasure?

To avoid alerting the enemy and attracting the attention of the British Colonial Government, all Indians approaching the temple next would not be able to leave alive.

This treasure excavation operation was not that simple. To ensure all operatives could safely return to Spain, traps had already been dug for the British during the journey from Spain to India.

These operatives basically had no Spanish features; at a rough glance, they could only be identified as Europeans. Even some individuals looked more like British and French, which was one of the traps the action team dug for the British.

In addition, all operatives used English language and French language when communicating with local Indian villagers.

Even if the Indians could not understand English language, it did not matter; after all, this was the British colony, so there must be Indians who could understand English language.

The third trap was the withdrawal route after treasure excavation. The operatives would not withdraw directly to Spain, but divide the treasure into several batches, heading to Philippines, Singapore, and Australia respectively.

Then disguise as merchant ships from different countries, take circuitous routes, stop briefly in Spain, and then sail to different countries.

Under the confusion of these three major traps, the British could not find sufficient evidence pointing to the treasure excavation force coming from Spain.

As long as there was no sufficient evidence, even if the British knew in their hearts it was the Spaniards, they would have no way.

After all, on the diplomatic level, sufficient evidence was needed to accuse a country. If the British had no sufficient evidence, even if they accused the Spanish Government, the Spanish Government would not panic at all.

Unless the British were willing to go to war with the Spanish Government, such accusations without actual evidence would have no influence on the Spanish Government.

These operatives who sneaked in quietly returned along the original path and rendezvoused with the main force.

After confirming the exact location of the treasure, the subsequent actions were actually quite simple.

All operatives were divided into two parts: the main force entered the temple to excavate the treasure and transferred it to other places using the transport tools prepared in advance.

The remaining small group stayed outside the temple to deal with the Indians coming to the temple, buying more time for the action team inside the temple.

To avoid attracting the attention of the Indians and the British Colonial Government, the treasure hunting time was at most 24 hours. After exceeding 24 hours, regardless of whether the treasure was fully transferred, the operatives could not continue to stay in the temple.

It was still that relatively dilapidated building, and the several guards in front of the building who were almost falling asleep.

The official operation had begun, and the operatives would not be polite to these temple guards and monks.

All patrolling teams encountered along the way were completely dealt with by the operatives, leaving no survivors.

Taking advantage of the night, several operatives quietly approached behind the guards of the dilapidated building; those guards who were almost asleep did not notice the operatives’ movements at all.

Taking out daggers and gently slicing their necks, the several guards fell down like boneless.

Because they had scouted the temple interior in advance, the deepest part had almost no defense force except for these few guards.

So after taking out these few guards, the operatives rushed into the dilapidated building en masse, searching for the so-called treasure.

An even greater contrast came. The exterior of this building was very dilapidated, even looking as if it was about to collapse.

But upon entering the interior of the building, statues one after another seemed to be regularly maintained, with basically no dust.

“Everyone, search separately, don’t miss any clue. Report immediately if you find anything. I think we are not far from discovering the treasure.” The lieutenant colonel in charge of command instructed.

Everyone nodded slightly and began to disperse to search for traces of the treasure.

The soldiers from the troops summoned by the government obviously had little experience and could only carefully check every floor tile and every crevice.

While the intelligence officers from the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau clearly had more experience; they began searching for possible basement entrances, even various mechanisms.

Because by common sense, treasure could not possibly be hidden on the ground. More likely, it was buried underground or in a basement.

As long as the mechanism or entrance to the basement was found, the burial place of the treasure would be found. As for how to excavate the treasure, that was the soldiers’ job.

Although heavy weapons could not be carried, miniature explosives could still be brought. If the treasure entrance really could not be found, they could only blast open the building as much as possible to search for the treasure.

Anyway, the nearest city to the temple was several kilometers away; if only miniature explosives were used, even if the explosion sound could be heard, the Indians could not immediately suspect the temple.

By the time they investigated the temple, the operatives would have long excavated the treasure and fled.

Thump thump thump!

Suddenly, an intelligence officer discovered something wrong. Almost all the surrounding floor tiles were solid, but the sound of knocking this floor tile was hollow.

“Possibly here!” The intelligence officer whispered, indicating he had found a clue.

Everyone instantly gathered, all turning their gazes to the floor tile pointed out by the one who spoke.

Thump thump thump!

The seemingly hollow floor tile brightened everyone’s eyes, and the lieutenant colonel in charge issued his order: “Pry it open! The treasure is very likely right under this floor tile.”

Under everyone’s joint effort, the floor tile was quickly pried open.

Under the floor tile was not soil, but a pitch-black staircase leading straight down.

“Treasure! It’s really treasure!” Everyone was delighted, all realizing that what was very likely buried below was the treasure.

What was basically buried underground were only two kinds of things: either corpses or treasure. If it was a tomb, there would not be guards here.

Although the treasure entrance had already been found, the lieutenant colonel did not rush to give orders, but first threw two torches into the entrance.

After waiting about a minute and seeing that the torches did not go out, he nodded and instructed: “Two slimmer ones go down first to see the situation.”

With the order, two obviously slimmer soldiers carried torches and slowly descended the staircase.

As the two went further down, the bright firelight of the torches became weaker and weaker.

After some unknown time, the two slowly approached the staircase again, wiped the sweat from their faces, and reported joyfully: “Sir, below is a complete corridor. One side leads to behind the statues inside the building, the other to a deeper secret room.

However, these secret rooms all have very thick stone doors, and no door-opening mechanisms have been found yet.”

To avoid revealing identities, the lieutenant colonel in charge of this operation instructed all operatives to call him and the deputy commander dispatched by the royal family “sir,” instead of specific positions or names.

The lieutenant colonel nodded, unconcerned about the secret room’s stone doors.

If there was really no other good way to open the stone doors, blasting could also be chosen.

Although this era had no electric drills, hand-cranked drills could still play the role of electric drills, just taking longer.

Just drill a deep hole in the stone door and install miniature explosives inside, and a stone door tens of centimeters thick could be easily blasted.

Considering that what was very likely buried underground, the underground secret rooms very likely had a large number of stone doors. So before the operation, the operatives had carried sufficient hand-cranked drills and miniature explosives.

After confirming there was sufficient oxygen under the staircase, the lieutenant colonel then led part of the manpower down the staircase to find ways to open the stone doors.

After walking along the pitch-black passage for a while, they discovered several secret rooms blocked by stone doors along the way.

“There are a total of 6 secret rooms; if all are the so-called temple treasures, our operation this time can be successfully completed.” The lieutenant colonel smiled and nodded, very satisfied with the number of secret rooms below.

The good news was that the stone doors of these six secret rooms all had mechanisms. Perhaps the Indians never considered that such secretive secret rooms would be found by others; the stone door switches were right beside the stone doors, not conspicuous but not hidden.

The two soldiers who came down to scout perhaps due to excitement did not notice the switches beside the stone doors, but such switches could not escape the eyes of the main force.

Returning to the door of the first secret room, gently pressing the stone door switch, there was only a click, and then no other reaction.

The lieutenant colonel was stunned, tried to push the stone door, and surprisingly found that the stone door could already be pushed.

Everyone immediately stepped forward and slowly pushed open the stone door. Under the torchlight, the gold in the secret room shone with a golden hue, lighting up everyone’s eyes.

“Gold, it’s gold!” All the operatives were immediately excited, staring blankly at the mountain of gold and gold products piled up before them.

The lieutenant colonel in command quickly stepped forward, picked up an ordinary gold jewelry from the gold mountain, examined it carefully, then nodded and said: “It should be real gold; this is indeed a huge wealth.”

Looking around, besides the very conspicuous gold mountain in the middle of the secret room, there was a more than one-meter-high elephant made of gold on the left, and on the right were piles of gold and silver coins from different periods as well as several gold crowns inlaid with diamonds.

In other nooks and crannies, there were countless jewelry and other metals; various gold and silver products dazzled the eyes, as if in a kingdom of gold and silver.

“My God! How rich are these Indians? Unimaginable; if we could control India as a colony, we could definitely build a navy like the Royal Fleet.” Seeing the countless gold and silver treasures before him, the lieutenant colonel could not help saying.

The reason Spain had not developed a navy was precisely because of insufficient financial strength. After losing the American Colony, Spain was already strained just to maintain the existing army size, let alone building new ironclad ships every year.

Precisely because of insufficient finance, from the outbreak of the revolution in 1868 to now, nearly 5 years had passed, and Spain had not built a single ironclad ship.

And facing the gold mountain before him, what the lieutenant colonel saw in his eyes was not countless wealth, but one majestic Spanish warship after another.

“Move faster, don’t miss any gold product or silver product. The more wealth we carry out of here today, the more military expenses the government will invest in the army tomorrow.

Also, I don’t want anyone with sticky fingers. When all these things are transported back home, we will naturally receive rich rewards.

But if anyone thinks they should have a share of these things, don’t blame me for not being polite then.”

What was before them was real gold and silver mountains; even soldiers loyal to Spain could not be completely guaranteed to keep their hands clean.

To prevent this, the soldiers organized by the government this time and the intelligence officers dispatched by the royal family would cooperate mixedly to ensure they supervised each other and did not secretly pocket anything.

After all, it was not a large place, and with over a hundred people supervising each other, it could ensure that the vast majority of these treasures were safely transported back to Spain.

Even if someone could pocket some, they could not pocket much. Carlo and Prime Minister Primó did not plan to pursue it deeply, unless someone’s greed was too great.

5300-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!