Order for soldiers mushy food, keeping men initially at attention (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
slope arms
'order for soldiers mushy' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'food keeping men initially at attention' is the wordplay.
'food' becomes 'slops' (slops is a kind of food).
'keeping' is an insertion indicator (some letters kept inside).
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
'at' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'attention' becomes 'ear' (having someone's ear is having their attention).
The first letter of 'men' is 'm'.
'm' after 'ear' is 'earm'.
'slops' enclosing 'earm' is 'SLOPE ARMS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for slope arms that I've seen before include "Put rifle on shoulder" , "military command" , "Inclination members" .)