50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 812 Trap
During the three days the Queen was in Hong Kong Island, the appraisers' work never stopped at the camp in the warehouses of Victoria Harbour.

Currently, the identification of the entire temple treasure is halfway complete, and the level and type of this treasure can be preliminarily determined.

Of all the treasures, jewelry that reaches the level of gemstones accounts for about 5%, or about 5000 pieces, and their value accounts for 80% of the total value of the collection.

The remaining collection consists mostly of everyday gold utensils and gold coins that were in circulation at the time.

After authentication, apart from a few rare gold coins, the remaining items, while exceeding the value of the raw gold, become somewhat unprofitable when considering the auction fees.

Therefore, Sun Zhiwei decided that these ordinary gold products would be recalled and would not be included in the later auctions.

This immediately accelerated the authentication process for the remaining half of the collection.

The appraisers quickly began to assess the value of the collections, keeping the treasures for secondary appraisal and valuation, and setting aside those that were not considered valuable.

Twenty-five days after the appraisal began, the entire appraisal of the treasure was officially completed, and Sun Zhiwei signed a further consignment auction contract with Christie's.

That afternoon, a convoy of more than a dozen armored vehicles arrived at the port and took away the more than 7000 precious artifacts.

Now we've truly witnessed the depth of this century-old company; most of those dozen or so armored vehicles were actually borrowed from the garrison.

Without strong connections, this is simply impossible.

These armored vehicles will transport this treasure trove to Christie's Asian branch vault located at Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road, Central.

The location of the Alexandra House is excellent. To the left is Central, and across the street is Landmark. To the north, across the street is Jardine Matheson, to the southwest is Queen's Road Central, and across the street to the southeast is HSBC Building.

This is the most bustling area on Hong Kong Island. The Pinkerton office is also located in this building, except that Christie's occupies the 22nd floor, while Pinkerton's office is on the 29th floor.

The history of this Alexandra Building is quite remarkable. The first generation of Alexandra Building was built in 1904 and won praise from the South China Morning Post for its rigorous Renaissance style. It was once the headquarters of Watson's Pharmacy.

Later, due to its age, the first Lishan Building was demolished and rebuilt in the 1950s.

More than 20 years later, it underwent its third reconstruction. This time, it unified the triangular area where the site was located, becoming a 34-story skyscraper that still stands today.

After the armed convoy headed towards the Lishan Building, the warehouse where the treasure was located was sealed off by Sun Zhiwei's men.

In theory, this is the most dangerous time for the remaining treasure in the warehouse.
Although the remaining treasures are not as valuable as the exquisite items that were taken away, the remaining hundreds of thousands of artifacts are all made of gold, and the value of the gold alone is considerable.

The reason they didn't enter the auction process is simply because it wasn't cost-effective, not because they had no value.

According to Christie's appraisers, the total value of this temple treasure is around $1500 billion.

The 7000 items that were taken away were worth $1200 billion, and the remaining items, if considered as pure gold, would be worth around $300 billion.

On average, any one of the remaining items in the collection is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Since Sun Zhiwei's Pinkerton soldiers didn't have firearms, those coveting the treasure on the outskirts must be itching to make a move. This was definitely a huge treasure trove! Now that Christie's main force had withdrawn, only a few dozen unarmed security guards remained in the warehouse area, meaning there was practically no danger.

What else is there to say? Just rob it!

No one could resist such a bargain, and the news quickly spread throughout the underworld.

That very night, under Sun Zhiwei's orders, the Pinkerton soldiers evacuated the warehouse area after dark, leaving the warehouses where the gold treasures were stored unattended.

This left the growing number of looters gathered nearby somewhat incredulous.

Only Sun Zhiwei, who lived upstairs in the Peninsula Hotel, sat on the balcony with a bottle of red wine, looking at the warehouse not far away, and let out a series of cold laughs.

He had already found out that those who were going to rob him today were all members of Hong Kong triads, and they were basically the core members of various triads.

This includes most of the core members of the 35-word group of 14K and thirty key figures, totaling over 800 people;
All the elites from 26 branches of Wo Shing Wo and most of their branch leaders came, including three of the five elders, totaling more than 600 people.
The Sun Yee On organization is more tightly organized. This time, their Five Tigers, Ten Heroes, and all the leaders have arrived. Only the accountants responsible for managing the accounts are left at home, and their number exceeds 500.

It can be said that tonight, this place is filled with 90% of the current triad leaders in Hong Kong, and they determine the ecology of Hong Kong's underworld.

In more peripheral areas, various organizations mobilized numerous subordinates, totaling over ten thousand people.

However, they were not the main force in the robbery; they were more like the gang leaders' last line of defense to protect their own safety.

Because, although robbing a warehouse itself is not dangerous, the biggest problem is how to avoid the many competitors around and successfully bring the spoils home even after you have the goods.

With so many triad members gathered in such a small place as Tsim Sha Tsui, how could the police not know that there are a large number of undercover agents from the Hong Kong Island police in various triads?

What's strange is that the police weren't mobilized tonight. Even the officers on night duty in the Tsim Sha Tsui area were canceled and all went home to sleep.

To say that they lacked tacit understanding in this situation would be absurd.

However, this actually makes things easier for Sun Zhiwei to get started later. If too many police officers come in, it will be more difficult for him to handle things.

At midnight, the leaders of the three major gangs met at the entrance of the warehouse in Zone C. The people in charge and the hall masters were all acquaintances and often interacted with each other.

If Sun Zhiwei hadn't been there today, they probably wouldn't have fought, because there was so much stuff that it would have been enough for the three families to split.

Seeing that they had all gotten very close but showed no sign of fighting, it was quite obvious that the three parties must have had a prior agreement on how to divide the spoils.

Sure enough, each of the three families sent people to the warehouse entrance and had their underlings open the warehouse doors.

Then the lights in the warehouse were turned on, and the first container was opened in the presence of the three industry leaders.

Suddenly, the chest full of gold came into everyone's view, and the scene fell silent for a moment. Everyone was stunned by the overwhelming wealth.

(End of this chapter)