The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never fought a people until he had first called them to Islam.
حدثنا حفص بن غياث حدثنا حجاج بن أرطاة عن ابن أبي نجيح عن أبيه
ما قاتل رسول الله ﷺ قوما حتى يدعوهم
No references are available.
Its isnad is sahih. It is found in Majma al-Zawaid 5:304, where he said, "Ahmad, Abu Yaala, and Tabarani narrated it with several chains, and the men of one of them are the men of sahih." This is a strange move on his part. He should have specified which chain he was grading as sahih.Muntaqa 4225 attributes it to Ahmad alone.