Laravel 5 No CSRF value - php

Question

I have a simple log in form with a csrf token field. When I submit I get a token mismatch. When I look at the value in the form the value of the token is blank
Both the login form and the authenticate are both in the web middleware group
Route::group(['middleware' => ['web']],function(){
Route::get('/login',function(){
return view('auth.login');
});
Route::post('/authenticate_user','Accounts\Accounts#authenticateUser');
Route::get('/bar',function(){
return csrf_token(); // works
});
});
That bar route does display a token
//login.blade
#section('content')
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-12">
<form action="authenticate_user" method="post">
<label for="login_name">User Name</label>
<input type="text" id="login_name" name="login_name" required="required">
<label for="password">Password</label>
<input type="password" id="password" name="password" required="required">
{{ csrf_field() }}
<br>
<button type="submit" id="Login" name="login" value="Log In" class="btn btn-default">Log In</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
#endsection
Unfortunately the csrf field value is blank when I look at the source code
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="">
I did clear the laravel session and view storage. I restarted my browser and web server (XAMPP using PHP 7.0.2 on win 7).
I also tried:
<?php
$encrypter = app('Illuminate\Encryption\Encrypter');
$encrypted_token = $encrypter->encrypt(csrf_token());
?>
<input id="token" type="hidden" value="{{$encrypted_token}}">
Got a value but it still mismatched
I am sure I am doing something stupid but I have no idea why I am not getting a token value and mismatch

Answer 1

You problem is
{{ csrf_field() }}
it should be
{!! csrf_field() !!}
Using {!! !!} it will render HTML code
UPDATE
From the Laravel docs:
Displaying Unescaped Data
By default, Blade {{ }} statements are automatically sent through PHP's htmlentities function to prevent XSS attacks. If you do not want your data to be escaped, you may use the following syntax:
Hello, {!! $name !!}.