Bog standard maybe I missed something

I just finished book 5 and I feel like something was skipped near the end of the book, the last 2-3 hours I guess. Maybe I missed it, but right after Aberthal (audio only) took over, he saw some people show up to camp, told a random person that the leader of said people needed to be beaten for no reason. The random person suggested beating two more for morale. Then, paladin bro shows up and like 10% of people get beat for morale.

First off, Aberthal kinda mentions is because about 1/10 men kinda suck and beating on the sucky person helps everyone feel better. I get that, but who gave him the power to dictate the fates of random soldiers like that? Also at no point in the story do we hear the name Lothar the paladin and think, "maybe he beats random countrymen senseless to make people want to fight better".

Did i miss something? I get Aberthal had an evil class, but that entire sequence of events seemed random and out of character for the knights of the long sleep to even allow.

It also seemed weird that soon after sir Gedric just said yeah, send Brin and Lothar in together and alone without having any buildup or explanation.

I feel like I'm missing an entire chapter here