7 -7- Longbow
King's Landing, Red Keep.
Tyrion Lannister, with his chestnut curls covering his forehead, wore a soft leather jacket embroidered with a roaring lion. Standing just over one meter tall, with a disproportionately large head and a peculiar gait.
"Hey, brother, didn't you see me? Where are you going? Did my dear sister appoint you as her personal messenger?"
Jaime Lannister shrugged and slowed his pace.
Tyrion caught up with Jaime. "Jaime, you should learn to approach me proactively. My most important role in House Lannister is to stand by your side, highlighting your greatness at all times."
Jaime sighed helplessly. "Fine, you win. I'll admit, I'm going to deliver a message."
Tyrion immediately put on a smirk. "My lonely sister couldn't resist seducing someone, could she? Come on, let me see."
Jaime's lips twitched as he raised the envelope. "Unfortunately, it's already sealed."
As Jaime's hand holding the envelope moved, he dodged Tyrion's hands jumping to snatch the envelope. "It's not confidential. I can tell you the contents."
"Oh, looks like I guessed wrong."
"Yeah, stop assuming the worst about Cersei. She's still your sister after all."
"Haha, if my dear sister would kiss my cheek out of affection, then the seven gods definitely had a bit too much wine."
"Tyrion, show some respect to the seven gods."
"Oh, I'm sure they wouldn't mind."
Tyrion patted Jaime's thigh. "Spill it."
"It's from a minor lord of Crackclaw Point. Cersei plans to take him along on the hunt."
"Well that's some unexpected news. Is my dear sister in a good mood?"
"The letter was voluntary from the little lord. The lad is quite the flatterer."
"Haha, Jaime, you seem to dislike this little lord. Are you afraid he'll steal my dear sister's affection?"
"It's rare to see the two of you having the same thought. I'm not that petty. Young men should focus more on swordsmanship than flattery."
"Well, isn't this perfect, Jaime? As a Kingsguard, you can take the opportunity to teach him a lesson and contribute to his growth."
Tyrion paused, then added, "Brother, Crackclaw Point is a remote place. You're a Lannister, you'll never understand the pain of being poor. If your belly isn't full, who would have the mood to practice swordsmanship? There's a tradition on Crackclaw Point of direct allegiance 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 Lannister's wealth, right?"
Jaime felt a bit embarrassed. "You're all making valid points. I guess running errands suits me."
...
...
Three days later, under a clear sky.
Inside the bow-making room of Whispers.
Gallen picked up a finished longbow from the wooden table, about 2 meters in length, and tested the draw weight... about 110 to 120 pounds.
For survival, most of Crabb's domain's people had to both farm and hunt. Most of them could use bows and arrows, and this draw weight could serve as an entry point, easy to adapt to.
With the training provided by the system, the long-term plan... would include longbows with draw weights of 130 and 150 pounds.
The longbow was modeled after the English longbow from his previous life, relatively simple to make and with a long range.
"My Lord, I can make three bows a day now."
"I can do the same!"
"Me too."
...
The ones answering Gallen's questions were the woodworkers, who originally worked as bow and arrow craftsmen, about ten of them.
Gallen's original plan was to divide the longbow-making process into several parts and establish a simplified assembly line to increase efficiency.
However, Gallen later withdrew his original idea. The first difficulty was the lack of suitable factory managers. Without effective supervision and management, both quality and efficiency would decrease simultaneously.
The demand for longbows wouldn't suddenly increase in the short term, and the current production speed could meet the requirements. So, he decided to let them stick to the traditional methods for now. The craftsmen gathered together, and when others' production speed improved, they could see it, which also provided room for competition. It could be considered a small step forward.
Gallen reminded himself not to go too far and to take it step by step. He shouldn't push too hard and risk exposing vulnerable spots.
Overall, Gallen was satisfied. After casually picking up a few longbows to try them out, he gave some additional instructions.
Gallen announced to everyone that the longbow would be named the Crabb Longbow.
...
Ser Phillip quickly completed the task within the domain.
The 100-man scouting corps had begun basic formation training.
Most of the soldiers in the scouting corps were hunters, equipped with bows, arrows, and short swords.
Coinciding with Gallen's plan, the standard weapons for the scouting corps were short bows and short swords.
Gallen defined the scouting corps as mountain light infantry, primarily tasked with reconnaissance and ambush.
Because the simple soldiers of the scouting corps brought their own weapons, the somewhat meager arsenal of Whispers was significantly relieved.
Everything else was fine, but Gallen found that the arrows brought by the hunters were not suitable; most of them were made by the hunters themselves, with varying quality.
The arrowheads lacked killing power, so the main task of the blacksmiths in Whispers now was to focus on making high-quality arrowheads.
Gallen felt like there was always too much to do.
First of all, helmets were another issue.
There were definitely no spare helmets in the arsenal, and it took turning the arsenal of the 200 Crabb soldiers upside down to equip them properly.
Gallen thought of the popular headscarves among pirates.
The storeroom had the most inventory of gray linen, cut into towel-sized pieces, tied around the head, serving as makeshift helmets.
All 100 men were uniformly using gray linen to tie headscarves, giving them a bit of a professional military feel.
[Scouting Corps Cohesion +1]
Next was armor.
In the future, Gallen's goal was to equip all members of the scouting corps with leather armor over chainmail.
But that goal was too distant for now.
There was plenty of leather material in the storeroom of Whispers, but almost all of it was soft leather, with only a small amount of hard leather.
Hard leather was the main material used in making leather armor.
In order to ensure basic protection for each soldier in the scouting corps, Gallen mobilized all the idle people in the city to make leather armor together.
Time was tight, so details and aesthetics had to be sacrificed for now.
Cutting, punching holes, threading straps, a simple leather armor was completed.
Emer's Thorn Corps couldn't be neglected either; as a lord, Gallen couldn't favor one over the other.
But according to the original plan, there definitely wouldn't be enough hard leather.
After considering for a while, Gallen made the decision to cancel the back armor of the new-style leather armor of the Crabb domain, leaving only the front armor that protected the chest and abdomen. This way, about twice as much leather armor could be produced, barely enough to equip the Thorn Corps.
Doesn't the back need protection?
As long as you always face the enemy, is it necessary to worry about your back?
Gallen's House motto gained a temporary addition—never turn back.
