The Crabb Longbow

King's Landing, somewhere in the Red Keep.

Tyrion Lannister's bronze-gold curls hung over his forehead. He wore a soft leather doublet embroidered with a roaring lion. Standing just over a meter tall, with a large head, a small body, and a protruding brow, his gait was peculiar.

"Hey, brother, didn't you notice me? Where are you off to? Has my lovely big sister appointed you as her personal messenger?"

Jaime Lannister shrugged and slowed his pace.

Tyrion Lannister caught up to Jaime: "Jaime, you really should learn to stay close to me. My most important role in the Lannister family is standing by your side, ready at any moment to set off your magnificence."

Jaime sighed helplessly: "Fine, you win. I'll confess—I am indeed off to deliver a letter."

Tyrion immediately put on a beaming smile: "Is my lonely sister finally unable to resist taking a lover? Quick, let me see."

Jaime's lips twitched as he held up the envelope: "Regrettably, it has already been sealed with wax."

Jaime flicked his hand, dodging Tyrion's hopping attempts to snatch the letter: "It's not classified; I can tell you the contents."

"Oh, oh, it seems I guessed wrong."

"Hmph, don't always harbor malicious suspicions about Cersei. You two are siblings."

"Aha, and should I expect my dear sister to kiss my little face? That would only happen if the Seven were napping."

"Tyrion, do not be disrespectful to the Seven."

"The old gods wouldn't care what I have to say."

Tyrion patted Jaime's thigh: "Go on, tell me."

"It's a minor lord from Crackclaw Point. Cersei intends to bring him along for this royal hunt."

"What an unexpected piece of news. Our dear sister seems to be in a good mood?"

"The little lord sent the letter himself. The boy is a sycophant."

"Haha, Jaime, you seem to dislike this little lord. Are you afraid he'll steal the sister's favor away from the brother?"

"It's rare for you two to agree on something. I'm not that sordid; young men should put more energy into swordsmanship, not flattery."

"Isn't that perfect? Jaime, as a member of the Kingsguard, you can take the opportunity to teach him a lesson and add a chapter to his growth."

Tyrion paused, then added: "Brother, Crackclaw Point is a godforsaken place. You're a Lannister; you'll never understand what it's like to be short on coin. When your belly is empty, who has the mood to play with swords? Crackclaw Point has a tradition of direct loyalty to the Queen; it's their ancestral craft."

"Brother, this is a good thing. At least the little lord isn't stupid—he knows the Lannisters have money, doesn't he?"

Jaime looked a bit embarrassed: "You have an answer for everything. I'm better suited for running errands."

Three days later, the sky was clear as washed jade.

Inside the fletching workshop at the Whispers.

Gryn picked up a finished longbow, roughly two meters in length, from the wooden workbench and tested the draw weight—about 110 to 120 pounds.

To survive, most of the smallfolk in the Crabb lands had to both farm and hunt; most were already accustomed to using bows. This draw weight served as a good baseline, easy to adapt to.

With the system's training, the long-term plan was to eventually increase the draw weight to 150 or 180 pounds.

The longbow was modeled after the English Longbow from his past life—simple to manufacture and possessing a long range.

"My Lord, I can make three a day now."

"Same here!"

"Me as well."

The ones answering Gryn were the woodworkers, about ten men who had been bowyers by trade.

Gryn's original plan had been to break the longbow production process into parts, establishing a simplified assembly line to increase efficiency.

Gryn later abandoned that idea. The first obstacle was the lack of suitable factory managers; without effective supervision and management, quality and efficiency would only decline in tandem.

The demand for longbows would not spike in the short term, and the current production speed met the requirements. He decided to let them maintain their traditional methods for now. With the craftsmen gathered together, they could see each other's progress at a glance, which provided a space for competition—a small step forward.

Gryn warned himself that too much haste would be counterproductive; he had to take it one step at a time. Taking too large a stride often led to tearing something delicate.

Overall, Gryn was satisfied. After picking up a few bows at random to test them and giving instructions on a few details, he announced to everyone that the longbow would be named the Crabb Longbow.

Ser Pell was renowned throughout the territory and completed his task quickly.

The 100-man Survey Corps had already begun basic formation training.

Most of the soldiers in the Survey Corps were hunters by trade, bringing their own bows and short swords.

It fit perfectly with Gryn's plan: the standard-issue weapons for the Survey Corps would be short bows and short swords.

Gryn defined the Survey Corps as mountain leather-clad light infantry, with their primary duties being reconnaissance and surprise attacks.

Because the soldiers of the Survey Corps brought their own weapons, the burden on the meager armory of Whispers was significantly eased.

Everything else was fine, but Gryn discovered that the arrows brought by the hunters were inadequate; most were crafted by the hunters themselves, resulting in inconsistent quality.

The arrowheads lacked sufficient lethality, so the primary task of the Whispers blacksmith shop was now to focus on producing high-quality arrowheads.

Gryn felt that there was always an endless stream of work to be done.

First, helmets were another problem.

There were certainly no spare helmets in the armory; even the 200 clan soldiers from the Crabb Territory had to have the armory turned upside down just to be fully equipped.

Gryn thought of the headscarves popular among pirates.

The warehouse had a large stock of gray linen, which was cut into towel-sized pieces, wrapped around the head, and tied, serving as makeshift military caps.

With 100 men uniformly wearing gray linen headscarves, they finally had a bit of the air of a regular army.

[Survey Corps Cohesion +1]

Next was armor.

In the future, Gryn's goal was for every member of the Survey Corps to be equipped with standard-issue chainmail worn under leather armor.

For now, that goal was too far off.

The warehouse in Whispers had plenty of leather, but it was almost entirely soft leather, with only a small amount of hardened leather available.

Hardened leather was the primary material needed to craft leather armor.

To ensure basic protection for every soldier in the Survey Corps, Gryn mobilized all the idle people in the city to work together on crafting leather armor.

Time was tight, so details and aesthetics had to be sacrificed for now.

Cutting, punching holes, and threading straps—a simple set of leather armor was complete.

Amparo's Thorn Legion could not be ignored either; as their lord, he could not favor one over the other.

However, following the original method, the amount of hardened leather would certainly not be enough.

Gryn considered this for a moment before making a final decision: the new-style leather armor for the Crabb Territory would omit the backplate, retaining only the front plate to protect the chest and abdomen. This would nearly double the number of leather armors, barely enough to equip the Thorn Legion.

Did they not need protection for their backs?

As long as you always face the enemy, is there any need to worry about your back?

Gryn's family motto had gained a temporary addition: Never Turn Back.