Chapter 131 The British East Indian Reaction (Happy New Year!)

The list was written in great detail. After various estimates, the total value of the treasure was as high as more than 40 million pounds, not including the value of various gems and ornaments.

If these were included, the value of the entire treasure might be as high as 50 million pounds, which is four times the current total annual fiscal expenditure of Australia.

What does it mean? This treasure alone can support the development of Australia for four years, including various construction and industrial development plans.

If it is used to develop the navy, this huge amount of money can build a navy of the great power level, even the top powers like Germany and Britain.

Even if the dreadnoughts are expensive in the future due to all-round upgrades, this money can build nearly 20 ships.

What does 20 dreadnoughts mean? They are firmly in the top three in the world, and even have the qualifications to challenge the German Empire and the British Empire.

In order to keep it secret, all the guards and servants who participated in the inventory must sign a confidentiality agreement, prohibiting the disclosure of the specific number of the treasure in any way.

After all, the source of this batch of treasures is not legitimate. India is still a colony of the British Empire, which is equivalent to robbing them from the British.

It is foreseeable that after this temple theft, the treasures owned by a large number of temples in India will also be spied on by the British, and even attract larger-scale excavation and exploration.

Whether the treasures of Indian temples can be preserved until the new century as in history depends on whether the British are tempted by the property exposed by the temples.

Arthur had never expected the sensation caused by the theft of the temple in India and the alarm it caused to the British.

Only the second day after the temple was stolen, when a large number of believers went to the temple to worship, they found the tragedy around and inside the temple, as well as a large number of damaged buildings and demolished gates.

As one of the largest temples in India, the Padmanabhaswamy Temple has a supreme status and reputation in the hearts of nearby princely states and Indians.

Such a tragedy in such a temple not only aroused the anger and dissatisfaction of many surrounding Indians, but also attracted the attention of the British as rulers.

If this matter is not handled properly, it may even pose a great threat to British rule.

With the intervention of the colonial government, a large number of British soldiers began to pour into the vicinity of the temple, searching every detail nearby and interrogating every Indian in the vicinity.

After several days of searching and interrogating, the British colonial government grasped an important clue, that is, a few days before the temple was stolen, there were several teams of three or four people passing through the temple, and there was no news after the temple was stolen.

But it was this clue that caused the officials in charge of the investigation and all the soldiers to fall into a headache.

These people came from a wide range of regions, including Australia, British New Zealand, British East India, British Southeast Asia, British South Africa and French Indochina, and the time of arrival in India was different, even a week before and after.

More importantly, at present, it can only be confirmed that these people were around the temple during the time when the temple was stolen, but it cannot be guaranteed that they had a motive to commit the crime, and even where these people went is unknown.

Even if it is confirmed that these people are the real perpetrators, what can be done? Whether it is the Indian princely state or the British East India, if those people cannot be caught, there is no way to push the investigation forward.

While the investigation progress stagnated, the number of remaining properties in the temple was also counted.

Although most of the remaining are not very valuable silver utensils, due to the large number, the total value is still as high as nearly 300,000 pounds.

This shocked the British. If it is a complete temple treasure, then what a terrible number it will be.

According to the British East India colonial government's estimate of the traces of the six secret rooms that have been basically emptied, the six secret rooms originally contained at least dozens of tons of treasures.

And because of the long-term accumulation, the ground at the bottom is stained with a layer of gold powder, which is enough to prove that there was not only a large amount of silver piled up, but also a considerable amount of gold.

This also made many colonial government officials begin to daydream. If it is a complete treasure house, its value should be tens of millions of pounds, right?

Thinking about it, some British people were very jealous of those who stole the treasure, but because they didn't know the whereabouts of those people, they transferred this jealousy and envy to other Indian temples.

Since this Indian temple has so many treasures, other Indian temples should also have them, right?

Even if it is not as huge as this temple, it should be easy to have hundreds of thousands of pounds of wealth, right? Isn't it a lot if you put it together?

It is not easy for these colonial government officials to catch those who stole the treasure, but it is easy to organize and plan another theft in other Indian temples.

However, the question is whether Indians can bear the second temple theft? This temple theft has already made many Indians angry and dissatisfied, and even resisted the rule of the British colonial government.

If British officials organize and plan an action to steal the temple, wouldn't it be adding fuel to the fire for the current situation in India?

Moreover, if Indians found out that the theft of the temple was planned by officials of the East Indian colonial government, I am afraid that the Indian independence movement and anti-colonial movement would be set off in waves.

Thinking of this, many more rational British officials stopped this crazy idea. For the current British Empire, stable rule in India is more important than anything else.

A stable India can bring more income to the British Empire, and its value is definitely not comparable to hundreds of millions of pounds.

But there are still some people who covet the treasures of other temples, but for various reasons, they temporarily endured it.

However, because the British Empire's blockade was relatively fast, the theft of the temple was only limited to the spread around the temple, and at most only to the state where the temple was located.

In order to prevent more Indians and foreign forces from knowing, Britain sent troops to station near the stolen temple and executed some more jumpy Indians, which calmed most people down.

At the same time, the colonial government began to clean up the interior of the temple and make simple repairs around the temple to deal with the traces of the theft of the temple.

This is also something the British East India government can't do. Without knowing which force stole the temple treasure, blocking the news and cleaning up all traces is the only thing the British East India government can do to stabilize the situation in India.

Second update, happy new year everyone!